Swampscott boys basketball looking to compensate for departures, lost time

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but it also makes the basketball court look emptier.Swampscott High School boys basketball coach Paul Moran knows this firsthand. His team lost seven players who graduated with the Class of 2008. One of his current captains will miss the regular season due to an injury. And several team members could not practice until this week because they had another commitment: They all played for the Swampscott football team, which did not see its season end until the MIAA playoffs last Tuesday. The boys basketball season begins today at Danvers at 7 p.m.”No one was really back” until Tuesday of this week, Moran said. “You’ve got to allow kids more time to be back. Every year, this is going to happen with football and all.”I’m all for football. I think it’s great. But it’s really unfair to me, and it becomes a safety issue for the kids.”An ACL injury sustained during the football season cost Moran one of his incoming co-captains, senior Trevor Wheeler. Numbers were already down on the first official day of practice, when 13 players tried out for the varsity and junior varsity squads.Since then, however, Moran has seen his numbers increase. He said that turnout jumped to 25 to 30 players this week. Also, on Tuesday, one of the seniors on the team, Charlie Baker, got medically cleared to play. Baker was recovering from a shoulder injury. That benefits the Big Blue: He’s a 6-4 center and one of the team’s returning players.”We’re very young, very inexperienced,” Moran said. “We need to stick with the basics. This is not the most talented team I’ve ever coached, but we’ll work hard every day.”The lone team captain who will see time on the court this season is senior guard Michael Nimkar. In terms of playing time, he and Baker averaged about one-third of every game last season.Those who logged more minutes have graduated, including the three captains from 2007-08, John Beaulieu, Scott Leffler, and Ryan Squires. Craig Rodenstein, Scott Lunder, Brett Jacobs and John Mason also graduated. Beaulieu is attending prep school at Taft in Connecticut.”He’ll end up playing Division 2 or Division 3 basketball next year,” Moran said. “My phone rings every day about him.”Swampscott finished second in the Northeastern Conference South last season, behind Marblehead. The Big Blue absorbed a three-point loss to Arlington Catholic in the Division 3 North state tournament.Joining Nimkar and Baker on the team this season are four seniors – guards Stephen Moran, John Poth, and Pat DeChillo, and center John Rosenthal – and two juniors, guard Doug Rodenstein and forward Stefan Eugene.”Most did not play (last season) due to football,” Moran said, referring to the Big Blue Super Bowl championship run in 2007. “They got beat up so bad ? It’s such a poor system. Nowhere (else) in the US, as far as I know, do they play two games in four days (a span that includes the regular-season finale on Thanksgiving and the first round of the playoffs).”Five sophomores – forward Pete Yasi, guards Zack Beerman and Brian Sullivan, and centers Matt Duquette and Frankie Barba – will also compete for playing time this season.Big Blue fans will not have to wait long to see their team on its customary court. Swampscott plays its home opener on Tuesday against Winthrop. Moran said the team to watch in the NEC is Lynn English.”I think the only kids that can beat Lynn English are their second five,” Moran said. “We played them the other day in the (Elmo Benedetto preseason jamboree). They are one of the best high school teams I’ve ever seen. They have it all.”He added, “Very clearly, they’ll be the team to beat. I think they’ll win the division. They’re older, they’ve got deep talent, and they have a good coaching staff. (Coach) Buzzy (Barton) has done a great job. I think they’re the team to beat in the whole state. (Ryan) Woumn is such a great player. I don’t know if there’s a better player around.”NOTES: It looks like Swampscott will set a precedent