By Kevin Agostinelli, staff reporter
The positive aspect of the Storm’s rebuilding year is summed up in the words of head coach Mike Kennedy, “Losing all of those players allowed this year’s team to truly start fresh and to build their legacy from scratch as a very young team.” With a starting 5 composed of four promising underclassmen - Luke Chevalier, Mitchell Starr, Ian Brothers, and Jacob Tobey - and junior veteran Kyle Garvey, the potential of this squad in 2013 and beyond is enormous.
In addition, the establishment of team chemistry was and will be crucial to the boys basketball team’s future success. The squad’s “desire and ability to help each other out in our man to man defense was a direct result of improving chemistry between the players,” affirmed Coach Kennedy, “They really came together as a team towards the end of the season and that reflects on all the players on the varsity team.”
Special honors go out to the only senior basketball player, Zachary Fayne, who demonstrated valuable leadership and enthusiasm to the Storm both on and off the court. Sturgis freshman and 2012 Player of the Year Jacob Tobey expressed his gratitude: “When I was mad at myself for not playing the way I was capable of playing, Zach Fayne told me to keep my head up, forget about the mistakes I made, keep playing, and do the best I can.” In addition, Kyle Garvey was given the Most Valuable Player Award for his great leadership, work rate, and determination. In essence, whenever Kyle Garvey was on the court, the Storm won the game or came close to winning the game.
Now comes the negative side. Kyle Garvey, clearly the focal point of the Storm, missed a handful of games due to illness, exposing the young team’s inexperience in every game without their veteran. The Storm suffered many close and devastating losses, two of which were against rivals Pope John Paul II. In both games, the PJP Lions came back late in the 4th quarter to defeat the Storm. “I know for a fact that [our record] does not reflect our effort and skill,” stated Jacob Tobey, “We lost a lot of close games that we should have won, but we didn't execute in the first half or down the stretch in the 4th quarter.”
Coach Kennedy shared a similar view on the team’s hard work and inexperience: “The work ethic of this team is one of their many strong suits... “I truly believe these guys could've beaten any team that we played this year, but too many times our youth caught up with us and we'd end up giving games away that we should have won.”
Thankfully, the boys basketball team finished off their season with an ecstatic victory at home over Southbridge. With Sturgis down by five with just a minute left in the fourth quarter, Jacob Tobey drew two fouls to cut the deficit to one. After Luke Chevalier stole the ball with five seconds left on the clock, he quickly fed Jacob Tobey, who crashed the rim and scored just as the buzzer marked the end of the game. Tobey was mobbed by his fellow teammates just as two hundred students, teachers, and families, roared with triumph.
As for next season, Coach Kennedy has already set his main goal: “I certainly think we can go to the [2013 state] tournament next year...Getting better, bigger, faster and stronger in the offseason combined with the refined operation of our offenses and defenses should bode well for the program next year.”
Lastly, “Coach K” gave credit to the improved Sturgis Storm fanbase: I think the support of our team has been great. Can there be more support? Sure, I'd like to see the whole school at every game!”
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