English looking to three-peat

The English High boys basketball team will launch its bid for a third consecutive Northeastern Conference North title when it faces Salem in its season-opener Friday at English.The Bulldogs are coming off a 17-2 season and a brief trip to the Division 1 North tournament, where they lost to Malden in the first game. With only one player graduating from that team (guard Raphael Perez), coach Buzzy Barton and co. seem to be sitting in the driver’s seat.English returns a veteran group that includes senior Eugene Turner, his sixth man last year who led the team in scoring with 14 points per game. Senior Charlie Rucker is back at center. He averaged about five points a game and a robust 10 rebounds. Senior forward Jeremy Subervi was good for about eight points per game and senior guard Justin Young contributed about the same. The Bulldogs also return junior point guard Ryan Woumn, who averaged 12 points per game.Barton said the biggest difference between last year’s team and this year’s group is the fact they have another year of experience under their belts.”Last year we only had one senior,” Barton said, adding that the current group has an added year of maturity that makes for smarter basketball.Barton had a huge turnout at tryouts, with 100 players vying for 45 spots on three teams.”It’s a good and a bad thing when you have to turn kids away, but you only have so many uniforms,” Barton said. “It (making the cuts) was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”Rounding out the varsity team are Travone Rogers-Berry, who moved up from junior varsity and will back up Woumn at the point. Six-foot-four-inch freshman Keandre Stanton will back up Rucker. Senior Jose Rivera will also see time in the five spot and Paradise Hogan, a sophomore, will help out the Bulldogs at point guard. Senior Jesse Fowler, fresh off a successful season as quarterback of the English football team, will see time behind Turner as will junior Irving Vizcaino. New to the program is junior Jared Bingham. Bingham played at Tech as a freshman, spent two years at Lee Academy in Maine and is back in Lynn. He’ll back up Young at guard.”I’d say our strong point is our speed and pushing the basketball,” Barton said.Barton added a new assistant coach, Mike Carr, to replace Jim Silvio who is now the head coach at Malden Catholic. Carr is an English High graduate who has served as an assistant coach in Stoneham for the past 19 years. Also helping out in the program are Ron Young and Simmie Anderson.