MARBLEHEAD — The pandemic has been tough on local athletes and coaches alike and Marblehead boys basketball coach Mike Giardi has seen that first hand.
Giardi, who also coaches Marblehead’s baseball team, saw a whole season canceled last spring. Now, with basketball practices more than a few weeks into gear, Giardi thinks the Magicians are in a great spot to stay on the court.
“I’ve been saying it, we’re really fortunate in Marblehead,” Giardi said. “We have a large fieldhouse with multiple courts and that allows us to really spread out. The biggest change is probably that the intensity can’t be at the level that you’ve had it in the past at practices. Kids are getting used to being in a mask. But really, any day on the court is a good one.”
All that space in the fieldhouse has been put to good use. This year might be different, but one thing Marblehead isn’t lacking is bodies.
“Our focus is on getting as many kids out there as we can,” Giardi said. “And we have a lot, we’re going to be able to field three teams of 15. Our junior class is huge. We have 20 juniors so some of them will actually have to play junior varsity. We had 20 freshmen try out too so we had to make some cuts, which was difficult.”
Marblehead will need contributions from a lot of those players to replace some of their graduated talent. The Magicians lost capable guards in William Twadell, Sean McCarthy and Sean Grady. Dylan Freddo will be missed on the defensive end, while big-man Adam Zamansky also graduated.
Giardi has seen this year’s four senior captains — Jacob Sherf, Sammi Loughlin, Mitchell Corelle and Julian Stux — already start to fill most of the leadership needs.
“They’ve all been awesome,” Giardi said. “They’ve done great stepping up and being leaders and that’s the thing we really need. They’re not worried about starting, they just show up every night, work hard at practice and push everyone else.”
Marblehead’s big junior class is highlighted by plenty of familiar names with varsity experience like Hunter Fleming, Cole Kronberg, Brady Lavender, Noah Mann, Lucas Mouthaan and Joshua Robertson. Also returning to the fold is sophomore Tryone Countrymon, who earned varsity minutes after being called up his freshman year.
“We have so many kids that can play,” Giardi said. “All those guys are all returning varsity players and with four senior captains, we don’t have a lot of room for much else.”
Last year, those players chased a potential state tournament berth throughout the season, falling just one win short with a 9-11 record. Now those goals have shifted without a state tournament to look forward to this winter.
“I think the kids just want to make sure they do things the right way so they’re able to have fun and play basketball,” Giardi said. “A lot of teams are seeing this year as a building opportunity and it’s a great opportunity for us.
“We want to give everyone an opportunity to play,” Giardi said. “We’re not sure what could happen this year in terms of rescheduling games and a possible shutdown. Hopefully, with all our kids we can at least do some intrasquad scrimmages consistently no matter what happens.”
