By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After finishing just under .500 at 15-6 last year, the Sacred Heart boy’s basketball team will look to return to their dominant ways in 2022-23, with an experienced roster from top to bottom.
The Knights will, as they have for over a decade, be under the direction of head coach Brian Gormley, who enters his 11th season at the head of the prestigious program.
After graduating just three seniors over the offseason, Sacred Heart will return a great deal of experience for the coming campaign, despite lacking senior depth on this year’s roster.
The Knights starting five will consist of five juniors and should look like this come tip-off.
G- Mike Matteucci (Jr)
G- Max Ehrlich (Jr)
F- Evan Bogart (Jr)
F- Jett Samuelson (Jr)
C- Jason Marrs (Jr)
Sacred Heart will also look for big minutes off the bench from a pair of talented underclassmen in sophomore Luke Newell and Freshman Will Tuttle.
Before the start of the 2022-23 season, we had a chance to speak with Coach Gormley and get his thoughts on this year's Knights squad.
Q: What were your overall thoughts on the 2021-22 campaign?
A: Considering the number of young players that we played our season was very successful. We were led by Alex Disberger, who is the most unique rebounder that I’ve ever coached and he was a mainstay in our program for three years. We had rough luck with some injuries but it was awesome to see the development of our sophomore class. Those guys are going to make a big impact this year.
Q: How excited is everyone to get back on the floor and back to playing real games after a long offseason?
A: You can see in practice there’s a competitive spirit and there’s a lot of good energy. We talked about this being a game week and our guys are ready to go. I know they’re ready and I know that last year’s experience will be invaluable, we’ll ride this and have some fun with it.
Q: Coming into the year what would you say is the biggest strength of this team?
A: We have five returning lettermen with significant playing time back from last year and another who came in and got some decent time. We also have a good skill level, we can shoot the ball, we can handle the ball and we have enough quickness to put some defensive pressure on people.
Q: What are the biggest question marks about this team as we head into the first few weeks?
A: Our main question mark is in finding out who’s going to grab the 253 rebounds that Alex did last year, that’s it. That’s the focus of our guys and they hear about it from me in every practice. We have to have an enthusiasm for rebounding as a team.
Q: What are the goals and expectations of this team for this 2022-23 campaign?
A: We don’t have any seniors on the team this year but we always meet with our upperclassmen and every single one of them said that they just want to win. They want to find their roles and do whatever they need to do to help us win games. This is going to be an exciting season for us.”
Sacred Heart will open their 2022-23 season in Salina this year when the Knights host Clifton-Clyde on Friday, December 2nd.
For continuing coverage of Knights’ basketball all season long stay tuned to the Salina Post.