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12/17/2016 11:00 PMAs Ricky Narracci enters the fourth year of his second stint as East Haven’s boys’ basketball coach, he feels excited to work with this group of Yellowjackets because of all the effort they’ve given throughout the preseason.
“I think our strength right now is our attitude and work ethic. There are things the kids can’t control, but the two things they can are their effort and attitude, and so far both have been great,” Narracci said. “Last year, we lost a lot of games that we won the year before. Our execution down the stretch, attention to detail, and free throws need to get better, so we win those 50/50 games. They can go either way, but you don’t know until you get into the competition.”
Narracci’s squad has lost a few key players from a year ago, including high-flying guards Nick Durso and Conor Reynolds. The coach understands that no two players are going to step right in and fill those shoes, but he’s hoping that the guys in his rotation will continue to work well together.
“The guys we’ve got replacing them are different players with different skill sets and then we have some guys playing a lot of varsity minutes for the first time. So far, we like our chemistry with the guys in the rotation,” said Narracci. “Unfortunately, we’ve been hit with the injury bug in the early season pretty hard. We’re thin right now with our depth, but we look forward to some guys stepping up until we get those guys back healthy.”
One area of concern for Narracci is the overall lack of size on his team. Durso and Reynolds were defensive stalwarts who corralled plenty of rebounds and so the coach wants this group of guards to do the same.
“We’re still small comparatively to the other teams in the league. We don’t have what I would say is a true [center], nobody that’s going to eat up space and be a beast on the boards. In order to kind of combat that, we have to do the dirty work and it’s going to have to be a committee,” Narracci said. “Fortunately for us last year, Conor and Nick were good rebounders from the guard spot and that helped our lack of size. We’ll miss that, but from what we’ve seen, our guards are getting better at picking up the slack. It’s an issue we need to emphasize every day in practice. In this league, if you don’t rebound, you’re not going to win too many games.”
Prior to the injuries, East Haven’s starters were slated to be senior Jeremiah Cureton and junior Ryan Spano, who are the team’s captains, along with Ed Popolizio, Nate Furino, and Nick Guarino. The biggest injury in the preseason was Furino.
“He dislocated his knee cap on the third day of practice,” Narracci said. “We likely won’t get him back for six weeks. It’s going to be a big hit to us in terms of scoring, rebounding, and depth.”
Other players scheduled to play significant minutes for the Yellowjackets include Brandon DePalma, Luke DelGuidice, and Jordan Ingram. Gabe Longley, who fractured his wrist in the preseason and will also miss about six weeks, is expected to make a solid contribution when he returns.
With Cureton and Spano serving as East Haven’s captains, Coach Narracci is looking for them to step up in the leadership department.
“Both of those guys have the most experience of anybody on the team. Jeremiah being in the point guard position is a leadership position of itself, so I need to stress to him that he needs to be more vocal this year on a daily basis,” Narracci said. “Ryan has been leading by example for a couple of years now. It’s just going to be a different role and I think being in the spotlight is going to be a very welcoming pressure for him. He’s going to be a big part of what we do.”
As usual, East Haven has its difficult SCC schedule to deal with this season, but Coach Narracci is focused on taking things one game at a time.
“If you look beyond the next game, you’re going to lose that one. We know the schedule and the league. There are a lot of good teams and players, which makes it a lot of fun,” he said. “We just try and focus on the one ahead and take them one at a time. We’re not good enough to look ahead of anybody, so all our preparation is the next one.”
East Haven Yellowjackets Boys’ Basketball 2016-’17 Schedule
Tuesday, Dec. 20: at Brookfield at 5:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 23: vs. Branford at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 3: at Guilford at 7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 6: at Lyman Hall at 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 9: vs. Law at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 11: vs. Wilbur Cross at 7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 13: at Shelton at 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 16: vs. Notre Dame-West Haven at Webster Bank Arena at 1 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 20: at Amity at 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 23: vs. Guilford at 7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 27: vs. Lyman Hall at 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 30: at Law at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 1: at Wilbur Cross at 7 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 3: vs. Shelton at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 7: at Notre Dame-West Haven at 7 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 10: vs. Amity at 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 13: at Branford at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15: vs. Sheehan at 7 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 17: at Platt Tech at 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 20: vs. North Haven at 7 p.m.