Young Hawks in search of another title

Matt Metcalf, Assistant Sports Editor
Posted 12/16/14

Competing is never an issue for the Bishop Hendricken basketball team. When players leave after graduation or for prep school, new waves of top-notch talent always seem to step right in. …

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Young Hawks in search of another title

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Competing is never an issue for the Bishop Hendricken basketball team. When players leave after graduation or for prep school, new waves of top-notch talent always seem to step right in.

Hendricken also isn’t a stranger to championships, winning the state crown in eight of the last 11 years, including a stretch of seven straight from the 2003-04 season through 2009-10.

The Hawks won the state championship last season, defeating Central High School for the title after a 13-5 regular season and, as Hendricken usually does, it found a way to come together at the right time to end the year on a high note.

Even though this year is a new year, the Hawks are hoping for the same outcome.

Hendricken has some key players back for this season, but also lost some key players. The two most notable losses are Matt Duffie and Garfield Coustard.

Duffie, who was set to be a senior this season, departed for prep school Tabor Academy. He was a Second Team All-State selection a season ago and was also a First Team All-Division selection.

Coustard graduated and was named a Second Team All-Division pick a season ago.

So how will Hendricken fill those gaps?

It’ll look largely to Justin Mazzulla, who’s just a sophomore, but is undoubtedly one of the top talents in the state.

Mazzulla attacked the rim constantly in Hendricken’s first game of the season – a 65-29 non-league win over Toll Gate.

The crafty guard scored a game-high 18 points in the win, while sitting for most of the second half.

Head coach Jamal Gomes knows talent when he sees it, as he’s coached several NCAA Division I and professional players, and knows that his team will have to lean on Mazzulla to shoulder much of the offense.

“He’s improved tremendously, he’s a beast,” Gomes said. “If he brings what he’s brought in the last two weeks, he’s going to be a heck of a player.”

Point guard Kyle Henseler is also back for his junior season. Henseler is an excellent distributor of the basketball and will man the backcourt along with Mazzulla.

“They bring a strong sense of defense, guard play, offense and a toughness and resiliency,” Gomes said of his two returning guards. “They were our two starting guards in the state championship last year. They have a lot of experience and we’re hoping that’s going to help us out.”

Other players returning from last year’s Hendricken roster are senior forward Ira Lough, senior guards Jason Rosario and Matt Ricci, junior guard Dimitri Rosa and sophomore guard Drew Ferguson.

The Hawks also have two freshmen on this year’s roster for the first time in a while – Preston Santos, who is a highly-touted prospect, and Nick Mueller. Santos scored seven points against Toll Gate on Thursday, while Mueller added two points.

“They are two guys who will be tremendous players in time,” Gomes said.

Three other players who should be key contributors in time are Hendricken’s three transfers.

Sophomore Alex Dickerman, a 6-foot-8 center from Masters Academy, forward Trevor Lawton from West Warwick and guard Elijah Brown from Moses Brown are all expected to make impacts on the floor for the Hawks.

They will have to sit out for half of the season after transferring, however. Dickerman, Lawton and Brown will become eligible on January 23 at the midseason point. They’ll get to participate in practice and scrimmages in-full until that point.

“We’re very optimistic about our season this year,” Gomes said. “We have a good core group of players returning from last year’s team, with some new guys in the program as well. It’s a good group of guys who get along with each other, which is important. It’s probably the most important thing.”

Dickerman and Lawton, in particular, will be valuable because they will provide an inside presence along with Lough, a place where the Hawks were lacking depth.

“We have talent, size and guard players,” Gomes said. “We have people at every position and that makes for a dangerous team.”

The good thing about having a little bit of team depth, is the intensity that it brings out in practice. Because of this, this year’s team has a tremendous work ethic, something that Gomes is proud of.

 “This team plays really, really hard,” Gomes said. “I haven’t had to get on them once for not playing hard. They go at each other’s necks in practice every day.”

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League has changed the landscape of boys’ D-I basketball this season. The playoff format will remain the same with the point system, but D-I has scrapped its subdivisions for the regular season. D-I will play as one big 17-team division. Each team will play every team one time apiece to comprise a 16-game league schedule.

“I think it’s better for the playoffs because you haven’t seen a team three or four times,” Gomes said. “But we’ll go with whatever the league says we have to do.”

Other players on Hendricken’s roster are Drew Almonte, Billy Mueller, Adam Lavallee and Dan Flaherty.

The Hawks will open up league-play on Thursday, when they host Cranston West at 7 p.m.

Hendricken will then welcome Corner Canyon from Utah for a non-league game at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

“Our teamwork and defense,” Gomes said when asked what the key for his team would be. “Offensively, we have a lot of firepower. If we buy in fully on the defensive end, we’re going to be really tough.”

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