FILE PHOTO
Fenwick’s Sam Mancinelli (right) is the lone captain and returning starter for the Crusaders this season.
By HAROLD RIVERA
Last season, the Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team ended the year with a Division 3 state championship. This season, things will be a little different for coach Adam DeBaggis and the Crusaders.
Fenwick lost six key contributors from last season’s team, including five to graduation and one to transfer. The team returns just one starter from the championship group in team captain Sam Mancinelli, and three others who saw significant playing time last season.
DeBaggis hopes that his players approach last season’s success as a past memory. His aim is to get the Crusaders to focus on this upcoming season.
“We have a lot of girls on our team that love to play basketball,” DeBaggis said. “Part of our season is going to be forgetting last season and understanding that this is a new season. They’re excited but I think they all understand that we’re playing some really tough opponents this year.”
DeBaggis, who’s entering his sixth season at the helm at Fenwick, said that he’s trying to verbalize a message to his players about the downfalls of a “championship hangover.” With six of last season’s players no longer on the team, DeBaggis is looking for new players to fill into those empty slots.
“My approach has been trying to verbalize that,” DeBaggis said. “One good part about losing five seniors is that five seniors aren’t even there anymore. Five of those kids that might have a championship hangover aren’t even there. Only one starter’s returning and only three of them contributed with minutes, so a lot of these girls are looking for a bigger role. Hopefully they’re hungrier to be a part of this.”
Mancinelli, the only captain on this season’s squad, is the lone returning starter. She’ll be relied on to run the team’s offense from the point guard position.
“She’s mature and she’s respected by her teammates,” DeBaggis said of Mancinelli, a senior. “She’s a consistent hard worker. She sets the tone with everything. She’s small in stature but she has a really big personality. She’s extremely respected because she does everything right.”
Other key returners for Fenwick include juniors Jennie Meagher (center) and Fredi DeGuglielmo (guard) and sophomore Jaxson Nadeau (guard).
“Those three played a bulk of the minutes in last season’s tournament run,” DeBaggis said.
Also returning are seniors Samantha Gulla and Camille Tache and sophomore Sammi Gallant.
The strengths of this season’s team will be aggressiveness on defense and quickness on offense.
“We’re very good defensively,” DeBaggis said. “We have a lot of speed and quickness. I think we have a lot of good shooters, which helps. If we can shoot fairly consistently, we’ll be good because I think we’ll be strong against teams defensively.”
DeBaggis noted that he likes what he’s seen from his team thus far as Fenwick prepares for the new season. The Crusaders played a handful of scrimmages over the weekend and gave their coach a reason to feel optimistic about the 2016-2017 campaign.
“We had a couple scrimmages over the past weekend and we played well,” DeBaggis said. “The girls remember a lot from last season, like the plays and our defense. The transition has been smooth so far with the girls coming up from junior varsity and girls that didn’t play as much last season. We still need to do a few things better defensively but overall I’m happy with how we are looking.”
Although the glass seems to be half-full for a young Fenwick team, the main concern is still getting over last year’s run. The Crusaders will use a day-by-day approach as opposed to thinking about a potential repeat.
“One of our philosophies is that little things make big things happen,” DeBaggis said. “I don’t think that focusing on big things helps. It’s about the little things for improvement.”
Fenwick opens the new season on Dec. 14 when the Crusaders host Medford.
Harold Rivera can be reached at [email protected].