LYNN — The St. Mary’s basketball team is fully in the swing of the offseason, competing in three different summer leagues. Head basketball coach David Brown is using summer league to evaluate his players and see what kind of team he will have this winter.
“Summer league is an opportunity for the coaches to get a look at the young guys who can potentially help the varsity team next year, along with players who didn’t get as many minutes last year,” Brown said.
Brown has signed his team up to compete in three different leagues with the hope that his guys will develop and build chemistry between all the games.
“My guys play in my league, which is on Monday or Thursday, we play in a league up in Lawrence on Tuesday, and we also play in a Peabody league on Wednesday,” Brown said. “It gives these kids experience playing against older kids, in addition to them getting used to the game speed and the physicality. It also gives us coaches an opportunity to see what we have going forward.”
St. Mary’s graduated its entire starting lineup from last year’s team, which left big shoes to fill. Brown said summer league is a great time for younger players to step up.
“This is an opportunity to evaluate your players from the sidelines. I have some eighth- and ninth-grade players playing right now. I can talk to them after the game to tell them what they need to work on. It’s a great time to evaluate what you have and what players need to work on. When the season comes around you only have two short weeks of practice.”
“We haven’t had a great offseason in regards to wins and losses but I can see the growth in some of these young kids from the first summer league game to now. They are putting the work in and expanding their game,” Brown said.
When asked what he thinks is the biggest adjustment players need to make from JV to varsity, Brown mentioned the speed of the game and how every possession matters.
“The game speed and the kids learning they need to play every possession hard and sprint back on defense,” Brown said. “If the kids don’t sprint back on defense the kids on varsity can make that long pass that they may not be able to at the JV level.”
The MIAA doesn’t allow for coaches to coach summer league games, so Brown has to watch his team from the sidelines.
“As a coach you’re so caught up in the game, you don’t see every particular mistake off the ball. I’ve been in the stands the last few years as a parent and as a coach, and you watch the whole floor more from the stands,” Brown said. “In the summertime you’re more like an assistant coach seeing what’s going on in its entirety.”
“I just enjoy being able to watch from the sidelines and see things we have to work on going forward when the season starts back up,” Brown said. “These kids will have played around fifty games between the summer and the fall, which helps tremendously by the time the season starts.”
Since Brown is on the sidelines, he likes to bring in former players to coach the summer league team since they know the system and can answer any questions the players may have.
“I usually have a former player coach the team. This year my son has been coaching some games,” Brown said. “I tend to like having a former player coach since they know the system and know what we expect. If they see a mistake they can go and correct it because they’ve been through the system.”
Brown said he’s been enjoying watching teams compete in the summer league. Since he’s running one of the leagues, he’s able to watch how other teams are looking in the offseason.
“Running the league I’m there twice a week and there for 10 games in total. It allows me to see what other teams have and how we stack up against them. It motivates me to try and make our team better if we’re not doing well,” Brown said.
When asked how important the offseason is, Brown said:
“Championship teams are made in the offseason.”
