By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
After cruising to a third-place finish in Class 2A and an overall record of 22-4, the Sacred Heart Knights will look to re-load and run it back with a new-look squad this season.
Brian Gormley returns to the helm for his 14th season leading the Knights, with a career record of 212-123.
Sacred Heart’s lineup will look much different this season after graduating seven seniors, including the entire starting five from a season ago.
Anchoring this fresh-faced unit is Will Tuttle, who shot over 50% from the floor last season and 40% from deep, averaging just under 10 points per game for Sacred Heart.
Tuttle will be joined in the starting five by senior Carson Lehmann, junior Luke Koland, and sophomores Noah Hines and Maddox Wells.
Juniors Ben Marrs and Ben Disberger, and sophomore Dom Matteucci should add an extra punch off the Knight’s bench this season as well.
Ahead of the opening tip, we had a chance to sit down with Coach Gormley and get his thoughts on this year’s team.
Q: How do you feel about the state of the program after a strong third-place finish last season?
A: “I feel great about the state of our program. We have a lot of inexperienced players this year after graduating seven seniors but we really like our guys. It’s going to take some time to gain some experience as our guys get used to the speed and ability of what it takes in a varsity game, but they’re competitive and we’ll see how long it takes for them to make that adjustment.”
Q: What would you say is the biggest strength of this team going into the new season?
A: “Everything starts for us with Will Tuttle. He’s the biggest scorer that we got back from last year and he was shooting over 40% from the 3-point line and 50% from 2. He’s long, he’s gotten a little thicker this year and we’ll lean on his experience early on. He’s the ideal scorer at all three levels.”
Q: What are the biggest question marks you’ll be looking to sort out in these first few games?
A: “We weren’t an overly big team last year but we had some guys in that 6-2 range that had senior bodies, and we held our own in every game on the boards. This year, we lost some height, and we’ll be harping on our guys to be aggressive, block out, and be quick to the ball because rebounding, on paper, does not look like it’s in our favor.”
Q: What goals and expectations has this team laid out for themselves this season?
A: “Our number one goal is always to improve and buy into the process approach. We want to go into Christmas 10 points better than what we started and we want to be another 10 points better by the end of January. I think we might see some peaks and valleys this year, but I honestly believe that with the players that we have, we’re going to see some exponential increases in some of these guys as the year goes on.”
Sacred Heart opens its season at home this Friday when they play host to the Eagles of Clifton-Clyde.
Live stream video with broadcast audio for all Sacred Heart basketball games can be found all season on Salina Post.