By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ST. PAUL, Ore. There was no letdown from football to basketball for the St. Paul Boys Basketball team. 11 of the 13 Buckaroo Boys basketball players had three days from their 2A State Championship victory over Oakland before they started the season against North Clackamas Christian.
And here’s the thing: The winning just kept going.
14 games into the season, the 1A St. Paul Basketball program is 11-3 on the year and is tied for first-place in the Casco League Standings with Willamette Valley Christian of Brooks at 4-0 in league play. The two squads play Friday night to close out the first loop through league.
It’s that hard work that Head Coach Mark Vernon, in his second year as Head Coach of the Bucks, said has been their secret sauce in their strong start to the season.
“They’re kids that are just used to winning, and we had two or three days before our first game, and we won a close game. I think they’re starting to believe that they can be good basketball players, too, besides football players,” said Vernon. “Hard work is our secret sauce. I think we outwork everybody in the state, I think we play harder than everyone in the State. I’m not saying we’re as talented as some of those teams, but I know we’ve played harder than the teams that we’ve played. So that’s definitely our secret sauce.
“These kids work so hard, they hit the ground running.”
St. Paul has the shooters to anchor their offense, but their defense is pretty strong as well, Vernon said. And all this success with a six-, maybe seven-man rotation. A set-up like that demands the best out of their players who see a ton of minutes. But it hasn’t hampered St. Paul going into the second half of their season.
“They play hard the whole time, they never get tired, they work their butts off and I’m so proud of how hard they play and how well they’re playing basketball,” said Vernon.
It’s a one game at a time mentality for the squad as well. Sure, they could look ahead, but for right now, their focus is on the Warriors on Friday night at home. Vernon spoke to the team about that at the start of practice about how big Friday’s game is going to be. The Buckaroos finished second in the Casco League during the 2018-2019 season, and they’re hoping that this is the year that they can get over the hump to get that League Championship.
And they’ll look to take another step forward towards it Friday night at 7pm against Willamette Valley Christian.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
