The boys varsity basketball team has had a strong start to their season, with a winning record of 7-2.
The team is young, with only three seniors. They carry a handful of juniors and sophomores as well, but these players are newer to the program. “By our competitors’ standards, we are very young,” Head Coach Brad Seaman said. Playing schools like New York Military Academy, which had seven post-grad players, or Taft where the average age of players was 19, can be difficult for the young roster.
Junior point guard Co-captain DJ Biggins explained they are a young team, suffering from the loss of past seniors. “I feel like as a team, we’re kind of getting to know each other better and we play together as a team,” he said.
While the team has many strengths, they lack height. Biggins noted that they’re often facing off against taller competitors. “The last two games we’ve had, they had players with heights of 6’ 8” to 6’10”—just enormous players,” he shared. In this way, being both a younger and smaller team can prove to be challenging.
However, the team plays fast. “We have a lot of interchangeable guys,” Coach Seaman said. They make a great effort to create turnovers and chaos, what Coach Seaman calls “weathering the storm.” The team has strong guards who put in the effort to make key rebounds, while their larger players hold off opponents. Players like junior point guard Tyler Brown had seven rebounds during the Taft game. Biggins has had two games where he’s had 12 rebounds. The guards help out a lot with the rebounding to allow their teammates to get moving on offense.
While the team may be young, Coach Seaman has been coaching many of these players since they were little. Brown has been at KO since Middle School and sophomore guard Xavier Hernandez-Newon has been playing with Coach Seaman outside of school for a while. Senior guard Co-captain Stryckland Whittley-Ligon has been playing with Coach Seaman since fifth grade. “A lot of the guys who are not seniors yet know the kind of style we want to play and know each other,” Coach Seaman said. Whittley-Ligon and Brown have played together since elementary school, allowing them to work together as Wyverns seamlessly.
Coach Seaman explained that everyone involved in the program is helping the team. For example, Whittley-Ligon does the little things that help the team win games. In one game the Wyverns played, four of the team members scored 20 points each, something Coach Seaman says he hasn’t seen in his time at KO. Biggins is averaging 25 points per game. Coach Seaman explains that Brown could average more, but he does a great job getting other players the ball and open shots, making him a rather unselfish player. “He takes a hit on his numbers, but it should be applauded because he’s making us better,” Coach Seaman said.
Junior point guard Will Parkhouse scored eight threes against the New York Military Academy. Junior center Keenan Murphy had two double-doubles and Hernandez-Newton hit some of the biggest shots at the KITs to help the team win games. “I think the strength that we all have is everybody knows their role,” Hanna said.
Something else Coach Seaman puts a lot of emphasis on is the experience of his players. “I want them to look back in five to 10 years and think that they had a good overall experience,” he said. Coach Broad shared that the team has gone to a wrestling event, a UConn game, and a St. Joe’s v. Babson game; it is clear that the boys are bonding off the court. They are even planning a steak-eating contest for the end of the season. “Hopefully they look back and think it was more than just a sport, that they’re not just a statistic of the year, that they have memories,” he said.
Coach Seaman states the obvious goal of winning the Class B Championship, and his players agree. “Obviously, the number one thing is to win a Class B championship,” Biggins said. However, Biggins went on to explain it’s more than just that, noting that the team is emphasizing growing with each other and nurturing brotherhood. “It’s just to continually be there for each other, off the court, or in class, anything in life, just being able to reach out,” he said.
The team enjoyed the annual Kingswood Oxford Invitational Tournament (KITs), a large part of the basketball culture at KO, creating an amazing experience for both players and students. It’s something to look forward to as it is the one time each year that the whole student body is out of school for Winter Break and can support the team. “It allows the kids to have a moment where we get to play in front of a big crowd,” Coach Seaman said. Biggins shared that he always looks forward to the KITs. “It’s a time where friends and family come down and watch us play,” he described. The KITs are quite the experience for everyone in attendance.
Hanna shared that these games match what he used to experience at public school, with more students. “It’s surreal having it at a school like this, with high energy, and great vibes,” he said. “It is one of my favorite times of the season.”
Good luck to the team for the rest of their season! We are rooting for the team to take a big win for Class B championships.
