ME Boys Basketball Looking For Repeat Performance in 2022-23

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The Manchester Essex boys’ basketball team has the opportunity to make the encore performance even more memorable than the first.

For most high school teams, the Hornets’ 2021-22 season would be a tough one to top: The boys basketball team went 18-4 overall and reached the Elite Eight in the Div. 4 tournament last winter.

But the 2022-23 season provides a unique opportunity for the program with six crucial players from last year’s squad returning, and size and talent waiting in the wings when it comes to the newer faces that the Hornets will rely on this winter.

“In 16 years of being a varsity coach -- which is a long time -- this is the first time going into a season that I have 100 percent confidence and know that we have everything we need in terms of athletes, attitudes and ability to have a successful season,” explains ME boys basketball coach Tim St. Laurent.  “Usually, you don’t have this much coming back, and when you do its usually not this amount of talent.”

That group includes junior Cade Furse, a first-team all-league selection in the Cape Ann League last season.  Furse is a guard with size -- six-feet, six-inches -- who can do pretty much everything on the court and is already committed to play college basketball at Wentworth after his senior season.

Furse will be joined by fellow junior Eddie Chareas and senior standouts Sam Athanas, Brennan Twombly, Patrick Cronin and Ben Hurd.  St. Laurent describes Athanas as, “an unbelievable shooter,” Twombly was a second-team all-league selection last year and Cronin provides a wealth of experience and size in the front court.

Chareas is the team’s starting center, looking to bounce back after injuries affected him during the second half of last season, and he’s another big body -- six-feet, six-inches -- out there for the Hornets.  Hurd, a swingman, is the team’s Swiss Army knife.

“He’s a very athletic player who can cover at guard or forward,” St. Laurent says of Hurd.  “He’s strong and versatile.  We’re hoping he can get 10 rebounds a game and cover one of the best offensive players we’re facing.  His work ethic is awesome.”

There are also some younger players who will be important to the Hornets’ success in 2022-23.  Preston Potter is a junior who will come off the bench and provide strong defense at guard.  A pair of sophomores -- Milo Zeltzer and Ben Jacobssen -- will also log key minutes this season. 

This group can play defense, is athletic and possesses a good deal of speed.  They also have a high basketball IQ collectively, which will allow St. Laurent to hand some of the playcalling duties off to his more experienced players.

“We’re very athletic, and we are going to get out and go and be really up-tempo,” says the coach.  “In years past, it was more the plays were called by me, now it’s more putting it in the kids’ hands and having them make the reads.  That’s our goal right now for them.  As a coach, I have full confidence in them making calls and making reads.”

Speaking of goals, the goals for this encore performance after last year’s run are nothing to sneeze at.

“We want to win a state championship, or make a deep run into the Final Four,” explains St. Laurent.  “That is our goal that we talked about at the start of the season, we want to go deep and we have to play as a team to do that.”

The first step in that journey is the season opener against Newburyport on December 16 at Newburyport High School (6:30 p.m.).  The Clippers won the Cape Ann League Kinney Division with an 11-3 record last year (Manchester Essex won the CAL Baker Division with a 13-2 record last season) and should make for a formidable test right out of the gate.

“Newburyport has won five league titles in a row in the CAL Kinney,” says St. Laurent.  “They came to us last year and we beat them in the opener -- I think they might have been sleeping on us a little in that one.  This year, they know we have everyone coming back and they will be ready to go.”

basketball, boys basketball coach