Success is in the air in Lindside.
Last season the James Monroe boys basketball team capped a 28-0 season with the first state championship in program history. The football team followed this past fall with a trip to the state championship game, falling to Williamstown.
Now the basketball team will attempt to replicate its success with key players back in tow.
“It’s been a weird year for me in a good way,” Sauvage said. “We were happy for the football team and cheered them on. I truly feel like it will take a couple of weeks though for us to get our basketball legs and IQ back. It’s a hard transition when a good bit of your varsity is playing football. We play on Friday so I’m hoping we can at least get it turned around enough to get through the weekend but the best part is winning’s contagious. It started with basketball last year and carried through to volleyball and football. I feel these boys are confident they can go into most games with a chance.”
The Mavericks return a solid cast of players including all-state captain and Evans Award finalist Eli Allen as well as Collin Fox and Josh Burks, both of whom played key roles in last year’s state tournament run. That trio will be leaned on heavily as the Mavericks journey throughout life without all-stater Shad Sauvage and center Cameron Thomas, both of whom graduated.
“We talked about trying to figure out our players,” Sauvage said. “I’ve always said we’ve got to adapt to the players and not make the players adapt to us. That’s out goal right now – figure out what we need to do to adapt. We don’t have Shad (Sauvage) and he was a knockdown 3-point shooter. We have some good shooters but we don’t have a knockdown shooter yet. With Cam he probably didn’t get the notoriety he deserved sometimes but he made a huge difference on both ends of the court. But getting Eli, Collin and Josh back is a huge plus.
“Those are three great defenders and if you can get the mentality on defense you’re good. I don’t worry about offense as much because if the defense takes care of what it’s supposed to the offense will take care of itself and those three setting the tone for us will be good. Josh – he’ll take on anybody we ask him to but he’ll have to take on more offensively. Collin finished with confidence last year so I’m hoping he’ll be able to roll that into this year and Eli’s one of the best two-way players in the state so it’s exciting to see what we have coming back but it’s going to be a different team and we have to put the pieces together so to speak.”
There’s already talk of repeating especially with most of last year’s contenders down from graduations. Sauvage is sticking true to his philosophy and enjoying the journey.
“I know it’s on the boys’ minds and it’s the expectation they have,” Sauavage said. “But I’m still on the train of the journey. I’ve been derailed on many journeys before and two years ago we were derailed on a journey. Two years ago we were derailed on a journey because we worried too much about the destination. To be honest we don’t talk about the state championship a lot. My big focus for this team is to make it their team. Don’t piggyback off last year, let’s make our own success and give people something to talk about from this year’s team. We don’t want to forget about last year but I want them to come up with their own identity.”
In order to prepare his team, Sauvage has beefed up the schedule. The Mavericks were rarely tested last year and affirmed their dominance in the state tournament, winning by an average of over 27 points per game. This year’s schedule features two of the other No. 1-ranked teams in the preseason in Class AA Bluefield and Class AAA Shady Spring, both runners-up in their respective classes a yea ago.
“Last year at times we went through a lull in our schedule and we worried about that going in to the postseason,” Sauvage said. “With the football team going on a run I kind of wish our schedule was flip-flopped a little and I know it’s impossible but I kind of wish the heavier end was at the end. But we’re looking forward to those games. Win, lose, or draw, those are the games you want to see where you’re at and what you need to work on. Shady is going to be the Shady we all know and Bluefield is phenomenal. We’re looking forward to those games a lot but all I care about is how long it takes to get everybody on the same page.”
The biggest question surrounding the team now is depth and how does the rest of the lineup look around Fox, Allen and Burks.
“Unfortunately we’re fighting through figuring things out now,” Sauavage said. “Layton Dowdy is out with a concussion he suffered in football. We don’t know how long that will take but he’ll definitely be able to step up into that two or three role and help us out. Cooper Ridgeway played a lot of minutes for us last year and he’s got a back injury from the state championship game. We’re hoping he heals up well and he heals fast. Cooper and Layton are out for the foreseeable future so some other guys will need to step up quick. Brady Baker also played football and he’s about 6-foot-3 and will need to stop into Cameron’s role at center. At times he got a lot of minutes last year so we’re hoping he can step up and do a whole lot more. Owen Jackson was on the team too last year and we’re hoping he can play some three and fill Josh’s old role.”
