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03/08/2017 11:00 PMSam Dombroski earned a promotion to the varsity ranks as a sophomore with the Guilford boys’ basketball team last winter. Now a junior, Sam has used those valuable minutes to his benefit this year and is having a productive campaign on the court for the Indians.
Sam, a power forward, worked his way into the starting lineup last year while Guilford was on the road to the postseason. This year, Sam played a pivotal role in Indians going 15-5 for the regular season and returning to the playoffs by averaging 10.2 points with 7.2 rebounds per game thus far.
“Early on in the bigger games, I was shy and played scared, but I learned from it. I was a role player last year and I’ve expanded my role this year,” Sam says. “I look for shots now, rather than giving them up and passing the ball off. I will likely be expected to take more shots as a senior.”
When discussing his success on both ends of the floor, Sam talks about how he’s been working on an essential aspect of his offensive skill set, along with always making sure he’s in the right spot to shine on the glass.
“I learned a lot from my experiences last year and I think I gained a lot more confidence from it for this year. I also worked on my jump shot this past offseason. Personally, I think it’s all about confidence and taking shots,” says Sam. “For rebounding, it’s all about positioning and getting into the right position before the person on offense comes. I’m also big on offensive rebounding. I try to have a good instinct to just go at it.”
Guilford Head Coach Jeff DeMaio has seen Sam’s progression from season to season, and he views him as prime example of what the Indians’ intangibles are all about.
“Sam has been a mainstay all year for us. He’s a tenacious defender and rebounder,” says DeMaio. “He is a hard worker whose blue-collar mentality epitomizes what our program is all about.”
Sam isn’t the first member of his family to flourish on the floor for Guilford; his brothers also competed for the Indians. Sam had a chance to play against them before he got to high school, and that helped develop his fiery foundation.
“My older brothers, Luke and Rob, went through the program here, and I always played against them at our house and went after it against them as the youngest,” Sam says. “I’ve just worked my butt off from there. It doesn’t matter what type of body you have. It’s all about how hard you work. You have to have that type of mindset.”
There are many familiar faces on Guilford’s roster this season. Sam feels that the Indians’ comfortability with one another has helped carry them far because they know that they can always count on each other come crunch time.
“We only had a few seniors graduate from last year, so we returned a lot of starters, and we know each other very well because we have been playing together for years,” says Sam, who thanks his entire family and Guilford’s coaching staff. “We know how each other plays and we trust each other, and the trust really paid dividends in close games this year.”