Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton insists he’s heard no talk about it.
But for one of the returnees from last season’s 27-win team, the program’s 59-56 loss to Bolingbrook in the Class 4A Bolingbrook Sectional Final in March still marks a sore spot.
“I’d say we’re very motivated because playing in that sectional final was a lot of fun,” Jacob Cushing said. “Definitely want to experience that again and hopefully get over that hump of a sectional final and see how far we can go.”
The Cal-Poly-bound Cushing and Joe Sieger are the two holdovers from a group that was on the brink of getting the program its third sectional title.
With Connor Raridon now playing for his father, Todd, at North Central College and Demond George and Zac Lendino also gone to graduation, Cushing and Sieger will be heavily counted on.
Alongside Raridon, who won 2014-15 Upstate Eight Valley Player of the Year honors, Sieger and Cushing averaged 8.8 and 6.6 points, respectively.
“It’s a lot different because we have a lot of younger pieces,” Cushing said of the team without the presence of Raridon, George and Lendino. “Our team is going to be mostly juniors, but Coach (Sutton) has liked our intensity so far. I think our defense is starting to come together as a whole and I think we have a lot of good, young pieces.”
The roles of Ryan Phillips and Andrew Clark, who combined for just 59 points last year, will increase with seven of the team’s top nine scorers from 2014-15 gone.
“We’ll have five seniors on the team and they’ll all play, so that’s a good start,” Sutton said. “Ryan Phillips, Andrew Clark, Donovan Wells – he’s returning after a year off. So that’s five seniors that give us a little bit of experience. Blaise Meredith and Alex Filo as juniors will probably contribute quite a bit.”
With Raridon, Lendino, Cushing and Jacob Eminger all helping out on the boards, the Wildcats were able to rebound by committee very well a year ago despite a lack of size.
While Sutton is concerned about how well his team will control the glass early on, Cushing believes they’ll be okay in that regard.
“I’d say one thing between this year and last year is we have more size this year,” Cushing said. “Alex Filo, as an example, is a junior – he’s about 6’8”, 210. So I’d say we have more height this year. I don’t know if we’re as tough as we were physically last year at this point, but it’s very early. I think it just comes down to preparation and I think we’ll be fine rebounding the ball.”
At 15.5 points and 11 points, respectively, Raridon and George were the only two Wildcats to average double figures a year ago.
Eminger and Lendino weren’t far behind at 8.5 and 7.9 points, respectively, as Neuqua Valley averaged just over 64 points a game last year.
Asked how his team will cope with the loss of Raridon, the program’s third all-time leading scorer at 1,005 points, Sutton was succinct.
“It’s always a team effort,” Sutton said. “We play nine guys every night. It’s going to be a different guy every night. They’ll all contribute and they’ll all take what the defense gives them. You never know who’s going to have a good night, but you can always trust balance. That’s why we’re usually successful.”
