There are a lot of new faces on the roster of this year’s Lake Orion High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team, and head coach Jim Manzo hopes inexperience won’t hold his team back this season.
The Dragons graduated seven seniors from last year’s squad, which went 4-16 in OAA II before losing their first district game. Manzo said OAA II should be more even, competitively speaking, this season.
“Last year from top to bottom it was better than Division I,” he said. “But lots of teams lost players…and we’re out of the Pontiac District this year, now we’re in the Troy District. It’s the three Rochester schools, the two Troy schools and us.”
Lake Orion returns one starter from last year’s varsity team, senior Luke Kendziorski, who saw some starting time towards the end of last season.
“We’re pretty young,” Manzo said. “The work ethic and attitude have been great, but we know we’ll have to play solid basketball to compete in our division.”
Manzo calls this year’s team a “tight knit group.”
“I see that they get along well, and we don’t have a superstar,” he said. “We need to get contributions from a lot of people.”
The varsity team this year, along with Kendziorski, is: Senior Tommy Miszewski, senior Colin Goff, junior Chris O’Dea (returning varsity), junior Brad Neary, senior Mike Ripari (returning varsity, out injured last season), junior Shane Drozdowski, junior Neil Mechill, junior Rodney Eaton, senior Ryan Lewandowski, Kojo Asiedu, and point guards Justin Smith (junior) and Ross Tonyan (freshman).
“Our overall quickness and the quickness of our point guards will be our strengths,” said Manzo. “We’re not very big, so the biggest concern is size.
“We’ll try to do some things to adjust,” Manzo continued. “We have a new offense…it’s wait and see.”
The true test this season will be for players lacking varsity experience to pull through the five-month season, Manzo said.
“We’re young and green. We don’t have a lot of guys other than (Kendziorski) who have played the rigors of a five-month varsity season,” he said. “But their commitment level is very good.”
Manzo said he has seen Kendziorski, who was out injured during off-season summer play, step into a leadership role.
“The off-season commitment has been very good,” he said. “With so many new faces, we have to wait and see them play.”
Manzo predicts Avondale, going up against Lake Orion on Jan. 9 and Feb. 17, to be tough, along with Rochester Adams, matching up against the Dragons on Feb. 3 and March 3.
New to the Dragons’ schedule this year are Lakeland on Dec. 12 and Walled Lake Western on Jan. 6.
The varsity team is assistant coached this year by Dave Tooley, Jesse Heck and Aaron Thierry. The team’s website is www.dragonbasketball.net.