November 25, 2013
Run, run, run.
That’s going to be the focus of practice for the St. James Academy boy’s basketball team as it takes the court during the next couple of weeks in anticipation of the season opener Dec. 6 against Ottawa High.
“It’s going to be coming really fast and one of the biggest hurdles is going to be conditioning,” Thunder head basketball coach Stan Dohm said. “You only have 17 days to get them into basketball condition and then the games peck off pretty quick after that.”
Fresh off of losing in the final minutes of the first round of the 5A regional tournament last season, the Thunder are returning four of their top 10 players to a team that has the hopes of making the school’s first state appearance.
After graduating its starting five seniors, the Thunder will be anchored by those four players, two of which regularly saw playing time: Nick Frank, Dylan and Colin McKee, and Pete Feiden. Colin McKee and Feiden’s roles will be limited early in the season while both recover from injuries.
One of Dohm’s realizations at this point is that some younger players will have to play some extended minutes on varsity in order to fill the void.
The lack of depth early on will determine how fast of a game the Thunder, who went 13-8 last season, can run.
“Everybody likes to play a fast paced game and we will try to play as fast as we can,” he said. “But early on, we will be able to determine if some of our younger kids will be able to handle some of the physicality of the varsity games.”
With at least five players 6-foot-2 or taller, Dohm is going to have some flexibility with what he can do on the court.
Senior Jimmy Dekraai will likely see more minutes this season, and Mitchell Zubradt will fill in as a hybrid four-man, he said.
The eight-week contact period during the summer gave his players the chance to get acclimated to their new roles and the Thunder probably “won half and lost half” of their games during summer basketball, he said.
Healthy, returning senior starting guards Dylan McKee and Frank are encouraged with the prospect of leading their team in a potentially historic season.
“We run well and we are a really smart team,” Frank said. “We definitely think we can use that and carry on to the state tournament.”
Dylan said the state championship is a “huge thing” and that just going to state would be a “fantastic goal” to reach.
“We are looking really good and we have seven seniors,” Dylan said. “We’ve played with each other for a while and I think we will be successful.”
How a player gauges success can differ from how a coach does, but ultimately Dohm wants the same thing as his seniors.
“We talk about goals and how many wins we want, but our biggest goal is to play our best basketball in March.” Dohm said.
“A successful year for me as a coach is to be playing our best basketball at the end to give us the chance to win those two games in sub-state to get to Topeka. Whether that is good enough, we want our best game to be our last game.”
The way to achieve all that, he said, is by getting better everyday, starting with Ottawa.
“You’ve got to look at the next day and the next game — those are the most important,” Dohm said.
Angelique McNaughton 