PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick girl’s basketball team is ready to make some noise again on the court as tip-off for the season opener is right around the corner.
Life is different as a coach for Adam DeBaggis as he welcomed two kids to the world while preparing for this upcoming season.
“Excitement levels are very high as always. Life is a little harder for me with two little kids now at home, I used to not have that so it’s different,” DeBaggis said. “I have a little more anxiety just about being a parent, but other than that I am always excited for the basketball season.”
Despite some lack of sleep for DeBaggis, his Crusaders are back to work and energized.
“I have noticed high intensity early, high level of excitement from the girls, so that’s been really good because I can teach basketball, but I can’t make them be excited and have high energy. They are doing that themselves which is great,” DeBaggis said.
The Crusaders graduated five seniors, including Cecilia Kay who scored over 1,000 points and is playing Division 1 basketball at American University. Despite not having the triple double threat in Kay, Bishop Fenwick returns two key players who have a ton of experience for their junior seasons.
“The biggest keys for us are two players, Caitlin Boyle and Celia Neilson. I think everyone will probably know that and everyone we play knows that,” DeBaggis said. “Both are juniors that are in their third year on varsity and both have played a lot as freshmen and sophomores. They are probably the biggest factors I would say.”
Improvement is key for DeBaggis and the hope is for the team to get better as the season progresses.
“Our goal is to improve, hopefully, to be a lot better in March than we are in December. That’s all I am really looking for,” he said. “Everything else kind of falls in line if we just improve every day.”
After a year away from the playoffs due to a postseason suspension, Bishop Fenwick hopes to make a run in this year’s playoffs and make some noise around the league.
“We were great last year, we lost five seniors, we were banned from the playoffs last year and the real only way to improve is to make some noise in the playoffs,” DeBaggis said. “It’s not because we couldn’t do that because of ourselves last year, we couldn’t do it because of outside factors. So really we want to make some noise in the playoffs.”
Bishop Fenwick opens the season on the road next Wednesday, Dec. 18 at Newton South at 6 p.m.
Owen Finn is a student at Endicott College studying journalism
