SAUGUS — Saugus’ girls basketball team tipped off tryouts on Monday and finalized its roster on Tuesday. This winter, the new-look Sachems will have to dribble forward without eight players who graduated.
Not only did the eight players make up the majority of the roster, but played meaningful minutes and provided strong leadership. That’s something to be addressed by coach Joseph Lowe.
“I think you have to rely on the four players coming back to set the culture that they want to have. We have four returning players who played varsity last year,” he said. “I’ve been preaching to the four returners that it’s their team now and they’ve seen what it takes to win. They won the league (Northeastern Conference) two years in a row and they want to make sure they carry that on.”
Although Lowe enjoyed seeing 25 girls take part in tryouts, he believes the four returners (Peyton DiBiasio, Ella Castle, Taylor Deleidi, Madison Botta) need to bring their A-games.
“They (Castle and DiBiasio) need to be complete on the other side of the ball. I know what they both can do on offense. I know Ella is going to shoot close to 40-something percent from three and I know she’s going to fill it up. I know Peyton is going to control the tempo of the game and be able to get 20-25 (points) whenever she wants, but that’s not going to be enough,” Lowe said. “They need to be immense on defense, so for them, if they don’t take on that role, we’re going to struggle.”
Deleidi and Botta have experience – no matter the sport – and will play pivotal roles, according to Lowe.
“Botta, defensively, is going to be a tremendous player. She’s a scholarship soccer player and she’s going to play a big role,” Lowe said. “In addition, Taylor Deleidi is another player I think is going to step up. Last year, she was more of a shooter for us. I think this year, she’ll step up and be one of the better shooters in our league because she has the talent.”
Lowe said his team is on the shorter side, but believes success starts on the defensive end, which will make up for the lack of height.
“We need to be able to guard full-court for 32 minutes and be the most physical team. We’re going to be the smallest team in the league, but we need to be the most physical and take pride in guarding and covering the other team,” Lowe said. “We need to generate steals and turnovers. I think of it like the old Lynn English days, when the boys team would go full-court man-to-man and it was suffocating. With our athleticism and toughness, if we can get everybody to guard, I think we’ll be tough.”
In addition to the returners, there have been a few surprises during tryouts.
“We have the two Sewell sisters (Shawn and Shalyn) back. There’s so much potential in them. We saw it after the first tryout – the way they guard and their compete level,” Lowe said of the soccer stars. “We also have a freshman named Kaitlin Hashem. It’s big shoes to ask a freshman, but she had such a great summer that there’s an opportunity for her to put her name on the map a bit and help us out scoring.”
After a few scrimmages, the Sachems enjoy back-to-back home outings on Thursday (Chelmsford at 6 p.m.) and Friday (Salem at 6 p.m.).
