By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AMITY, Ore.– The Amity Boys Basketball team are embracing the ‘Great Unknown’ role this year as they wrap up their first official week of the season.
They graduated four crucial seniors from last year’s that contributed significantly to a Warrior team that went 13-12 last Winter. But that’s where fourth-year Head Coach Devin McShane is excited to see coming out of this first week. They lost that productivity, but they got kids behind them that are hungry to prove themselves this year.
“Our seniors were great last year. They did a lot for our team, there’s big shoes to fill. We’ve taken this opportunity to see how people have grown in the offseason and where they can contribute. But I think we got a group that’s ready to fill those shoes,” said McShane. “We’re going to have growing pains for sure. We’re going to have opportunities where we’re not going to capitalize on them and then I think we’re going to shock some teams. I do believe that they underestimate us because of what we did lose.
They got themselves a Core Four in which McShane is hoping will fill the void this season that features Diego Dubay Lomeli, Bradley Sexton and Asher Weiler. McShane mentioned their togetherness having played ball together a lot. McShane also spoke highly of junior Ethan Owning.
“The one person that has really stepped up this week as our vocal leader is Ethan Owings. He’s taken a big step forward from what we even had at even at the end of last year. He spent the offseason playing good club basketball,” McShane said of Owings.
Entering this next week, McShane spoke towards the ‘We over Me’ mentality that the kids have embraced. And that’s a good thing to have said the coach as they slowly move their way into their first game of the year on December 5 when they open the season with the Warrior Classic.
“I think that’s a great mindset to have. During try-outs I try to talk to each and everyone of them and what they’re goals are and everyone set a team goal. It wasn’t, ‘I want to be x.y’ player. They obviously want to develop, but it’s ‘I want to win. I want to find a way to win and that’s pretty cool to see from a group,” said McShane. “I think we’re going to be the most un-tracked team. Nobody is going to know much about us. They’ll know of some what we run, but we’re completely different than in the past I believe that.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
