Matt Sauvage spent much of the last decade leading James Monroe during the most successful run in school history.
His tenure ended with Class A state championships in 2022 and ’23 as well as a state tournament berth last season. Sauvage stepped down this past offseason, giving way to Peterstown legend Kelly Mann. On top of that the Mavericks have bumped up from Class A to AA.
Mann isn’t too worried about getting caught up in expectations though.
“I don’t know that we really have a set of expectations as far as you know number of wins or what we’re gonna do,” Mann said. “The expectations that we’re trying to sit and work on are more about daily habits, what we put into things so we’re setting the tone of more what we’re going to be on a daily basis in practice. What habits we’re trying to build and those type of things and we feel like if we can get that message to stick, the wins and losses will typically take care of themselves.”
The Mavericks graduated a pair of key starters in Ryan Cole and Cooper Ridgeway but aren’t short on experience.
Returning are key pieces such as Layton Dowdy, Brady Baker, Ryan Mann and Wil Boggess. Mann will lean on them to help the team navigate through the season.
“Taking over from Matt and Corey and Jim and the program that they built and they’ve had over the last few years, and they had great success, so the kids have a mentality that right now I think there are expectations,” Mann said. “I don’t know exactly how to define that with wins and losses. I don’t know, but we have we have a really good group of kids back who have great habits already built. They’re based on a great program and we get some new guys some younger guys who I’m pretty excited about, I mean that. They bring in that scoring that we’re gonna need, they bring some ball handling and size. We’ve had a couple scrimmages and we’re playing on the defensive end the same. Basically we’re not trying to fix what’s not broken and Matt had done such a great job on the defensive end and that mentality and even the terminology and just the way they play defense I think it lines up with my thought process. We’re ahead of the game in so many ways there with those guys returning and they set such a tone based off of past experience. The success builds into your program so I mean we are excited and we feel good about where we’re heading, but I think that’s the biggest thing those guys bring back is just a mentality to go fight to win.”
Mann feels good about the foundation that was laid before him and doesn’t plan to change it. Even though he’s somewhat new he still worked to help Sauvage in years past and doesn’t want to change the formula that’s worked. In that, he’s uncovered numerous strengths.
“I guess this will be our third week or two weeks and coming in,” Mann said. “I know the returning guys defensively would be solid, but I have been very optimistic, I guess very surprised, on the offensive side. We’re gonna play an up-tempo game offensively and I believe in it. I think we have the depth and the players that can do it and I have been very surprised how quickly they’ve picked up and the transition we’ve made in a practice so far. The mentality to push the ball and what we’re trying to do on the break and strength with the ball as you’re pushing it. A lot of times you’re gonna be in traffic and you just gotta be strong through that. I’ve been very pleased and very optimistic on the offensive side. I thought it would take maybe a month to six weeks for us to kind of get to where I feel like we’re at right now.”
Mann’s squad will be thrown in the fire with a state tournament path tougher than year’s past. Bumping up to double-A means contending with legacy programs on a nightly basis, ones that have competed for titles just as James Monroe has.
“That’s kind of a double edged sword there as far as every night is going to be a challenge,” Mann said. “I think you know in the past James Monroe was very dominant and had some seasons where they were so dominant that maybe maybe every night wasn’t a challenge and I really look forward to that. I’m used to the Westside, Bluefield, etc. I don’t really know Mingo Central because it’s so far away but I mean there’s just a lot of quality teams in our region that we’re gonna have to be able to compete with. In all honesty at this point I don’t know what anybody has. I only hear what other people say they had but I haven’t seen these guys and I don’t know. So all we can do is focus on what we are and then once we get into the season and start to play some of these people they will reveal what we need to work on.”
