By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After finishing the 2019-2020 season with a 19-4 record, the Sacred Heart Knights boys basketball team is reloaded and ready to go for 2020-2021.
Brian Gormley, who coached the Knights from 1997-2004, returns for his third season in his second stint as Sacred Heart’s head basketball coach.
When Sacred Heart tips off against Ell-Saline on Friday, the Knights lineup will look something like this.
PG: Jacob Gormley (Sr, 6-3, 6.6 ppg in 19-20)
G: Caleb Gilliland (Sr, 6-0, 11.9 ppg in 19-20)
W: Mason Richards (Sr, 6-2, 5.6 ppg in 19-20)
F: Kobe Douglas (Sr, 6-3)
C: Alex Disberger (Jr, 6-4)
Gus Campa is also expected to make a large contribution off the bench this season.
We had a chance to speak with Coach Gormley and ask him a few questions about his team heading into the new season.
Q: What has been the key to your success in continuing to build on the basketball culture here at Sacred Heart?
A: We’ve had a lot of good basketball players here, we’ve had a nice run and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of kids who were not only good athletes but also dedicated basketball players. All of our seniors this year fall into that as well.
What are your expectations for your team heading into 2020-21?
We should be solid on both sides of the floor, it will be interesting to see how well we replace a few high end scorers from last year but we do a lot of things really well, we just need to find our guys that can score in big moments.
What would you say is this team's biggest strength before the season begins?
We have really good team chemistry and that really shows in our ball movement.
And the team’s biggest weakness?
I want to see how we hit shots in big moments.
Who are one or two guys that you think fans should really keep an eye on this season?
Caleb Gilliland and Jacob Gormley and if there’s an underclassman to watch it’s definitely Alex Disberger.
Tipoff for Sacred Heart and Ell-Saline will follow the girls game which begins at 6pm on Friday at Sacred Heart High School.