The Boys Varsity Basketball Team finished with a record of 7-19 this year, which placed them in fifth place in the Colonial Division of the CVC. Despite the low finish, there were many bright spots throughout the season, and Coach Flanagan and the returning players are looking optimistic about the program's future.

The team’s 7 wins is a big improvement from last season’s 2 wins with Coach Flanagan giving the season a B to B+. When asked what contributed to the grade, Coach Flanagan said “We came into this season with a lot of younger, varsity level inexperienced players who were a below .500 JV team from last season. We knew that this season was going to be a challenge with a conference where most teams either returned their entire lineup from last year or at least 3 key players.  From the beginning of the season we were all about just being competitive and getting 1% better each day. I would say overall we achieved that except we needed more consistency game to game and opponent to opponent.” 

When asked about some key players in this improved season Coach Flanagan said “We could argue that we had huge performances from a number of players but for this year some key guys for us that really could get things going or impact a game we’re Corey Wassall, Avery Cannato, Remy Feniello, and Mason Grant.”

I spoke to several players about the team's improvement and how it contributed to the team's success this year. Sophomore guard Joey Ditta added to this saying “Last year we had a lot of returning players. They already played together and had a rhythm. This year we had a younger team with a lot of sophomores. We had to find our rhythm and learn how to work together. The difference in our success was the chemistry that we put out in practices and on the court in games was really the big difference to give us a more successful season than last year.” 

Sophomore forward Jon Weaver added.  “From a player’s aspect I would say we improved a lot from last season. Last year varsity winning 2 games this year winning 7 games, 5  more games is a lot especially for the future of this organization. It's great to see young guys come out, we had sophomores starting throughout the year and having a young team could be great and yeah.”

Coach Flanagan agreed with his players on the thought that the chemistry built from last year was key saying, “The biggest difference between this year was that this team played for each other more than last season. Both teams struggled with consistency and were inexperienced however we didn’t have 5 guys playing the same way at all times last season to add to it. This team was also more mentally focused and prepared to put themselves in successful situations.”

When asked if goals were exceeded or met for the season, coach said “As mentioned earlier we did achieve our goal of being competitive. Coming into the season we also placed an emphasis on winning our out of conference schedule. Our out of conference games we scheduled were comparative to our level of basketball and we went 7-2 in those 9 games which was great to see.” 

The future of the program looks bright and has high hopes according to Coach Flanagan.“I think the future is very bright for our program. We had a lot of guys gain valuable experience at the Varsity level and saw the majority of times have 4 jrs or sophs on the court at a given time which should pay dividends ahead.”

Even with challenges they faced throughout this season the team and coach have a positive outlook on everything that they accomplished and are looking forward to the next season, and the future of the boys basketball program at Steinert.