Springfield Catholic will head into the 2016-17 basketball season looking to avenge an early-out in last year’s district tournament, losing 60-34 to Conway in the opening round.
“Probably our ultimate goal is to be a factor in our district tournament,” said head coach Tony Armstrong. “Our district will probably be the toughest Class 3 district in the state, with the likes of Clever, Fair Grove, Strafford, and Conway. The COC-Small Division should once again be everyone versus Bolivar.”
The Fightin’ Irish finished second-to-last in the COC-Small Division (1-5) ahead of only Buffalo. They went 11-15 overall.
Catholic graduated their leading scorer from last year in Garrison Howell (11 PPG). Jake Neff also graduated last year and was considered the team’s “toughest and most competitive player last year,” by Coach Armstrong.
This season will present a unique challenge for the Irish.
Without a single senior player on the roster, Catholic will be led by a group of young players out of necessity. Fortunately, their young players come with plenty of experience.
“We return a two-year starting junior center in [Ian] Cochran, and had two freshmen start full-time last year, with two other freshmen seeing time in every game and starting part time. We hope this year will be the beginning of a long stretch of success in the program.”
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Cochran stands at 6’7” and averaged 5.5 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore last year. He, along with Brett Maes, Lincoln Jones and Michael Zolfaghari, will provide leadership as juniors in the program.
“I think we should have a solid team this year,” said Cochran. “We’ve got a lot of guys who are really committed and want to win. We might be considered a ‘younger team,’ because we don’t have any seniors but I think we can step up and make a run at districts. If we can all stay healthy and keep working hard, we will be successful.”
Look for Charlie O’Reilly and Jake Branham to make an impact as sophomores. O’Reilly is the leading returning scorer (9 PPG), and the point guard Branham has grown three inches since last year according to Coach Armstrong and now stands at 6’1”. O’Reilly and Branham both started every game last year as freshmen.
“Despite our youth, our kids have played a lot of basketball and got valuable experience last year,” Armstrong reiterated. “We should have lots of competition for spots and this should provide us with plenty of depth and make practices extremely competitive. We have some length and our skill level is pretty high.
“Several of our kids are basketball ‘junkies’, who love to play,” he said. “We have gotten bigger and stronger since last year, but still need to improve our strength. Our season will depend on how much we want to guard, and how important that becomes to our players.”
