By: Christian Mordi / @thedribbledrop
Team: The Patrick School
Ranking: 2
Record Last season: 29-4 (7-1 in conference play)
Key players: Al-Amir Dawes, junior
Valdir Manuel, senior
Marquis Nowell, senior
Potential emerging stars: C.J. Wilcher, sophomore
Darryl Banks, junior
Alejandro Vasquez , junior (Transfer from John Bowne NY)
Johnathan Leiras, senior (transfer from Harrison)
Giorgi Bezhanishvili, senior (transfer from Austria)
Team analysis: The Patrick School may have graduated four seniors to division one programs, but they are still loaded.
It was clear from the start of fall ball that this team had an UNREAL amount of depth.In fact, they had so much talent that they had TWO teams in each fall league. In regards to skills, TPS has everything you can ask for. They have size in the frontcourt in Valdir Manuel, Majak and Bezhanishvili. They have stellar guard play in Al-Amir Dawes, Marquis Nowell, Darryl Banks and Johnathan Leiras. The only knock on this team is the massive roster turnover from last years team. It’s fair to assume that there are a lot of guys still figuring out how each other play. It’s also fair to assume that it’s going to be hard to get in a rhythm with this many guys, even harder to set a rotation.
With that being said, half the battle is getting talented players and TPS has a lot of talent. Look for guys like Al-Amir Dawes and Valdir Manuel to lead the way early as they were legit players on last years championship run. They will set the tone early in regards to showing guys “The Patrick School” way of doing things.
If coach Chris Chavannes can get everyone on the same page come March, The Patrick School could be hoisting the T.O.C. trophy again to end the year.
Stat to know: The Patrick Schools is the defending state champions.