Big Blue ‘family’ shooting for tourney gold

By winning just two more games than last season, Swampscott could find itself playing into March. Head coach Justin Fucile feels he has the squad that can do just that.”The group that I have this year is like a family, on and off the court,” Fucile said. “They generally care about each other and are battling for each other.”With Item and NEC All-Star Mike Walsh (averaged almost 13 points and nine rebounds a game last year) moving on to play football at Brown and fellow three-year starter A.J. Baker matriculating at Union College, there are opportunities available to Big Blue returnees.The brunt of the offense could come from Swampscott’s two captains, Dan Trentsch and Steve Bowers.Trentsch, a four-year varsity player, can handle both guard spots while Bowers enters his second varsity campaign with eyes on either the shooting guard or small forward positions.Add senior swingman Val Temin to the mix and the Big Blue could find balanced offense to be a winning game plan.”We have two captains that can score and any of the three seniors could lead us in scoring,” Fucile said. “They share the ball well so we can really play for strong matchups and ride the hot hand.”A pair of juniors that have grown physically and athletically are battling to be the primary center as Chad Nelson and Sam Walker look to bust into the starting five.”It’s very competitive between the two and, depending on our strategy, we could have both of them out there at the same time,” Fucile said.Joining the pair up front will be bulldog senior Josh Joseph, an undersized power forward that won’t shy away from battles under the boards.A key sub off the bench will be shooting guard Steve Scaglione, a player Fucile sees injecting some energy into the lineup.”We have a great mix of youth and experience, players that have been through the battles and freshmen and sophomores,” said Fucile. “They’re all true basketball players. It’s their first sport and they’re passionate for it.”Starting from opening night Tuesday at East Boston, the Big Blue have a rugged schedule to deal with.Besides league foes in state champ Danvers and North sectional finalist Saugus, Swampscott travels to Malden for holiday action against the host school and possibly Wakefield or Snowden.”We did load up the schedule, there’s no gimmies,” said Fucile. “But our goal is to definitely make the tournament.”