By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
Year 2015 was a time of transition for the STMA boys’ basketball program. Gone was Jackson Greenwaldt, the new leading scorer in team history. Also gone was longtime head coach Tim Anfenson, the man who built the program from the ground up.
The result was an 8-18 season, ending with a 65-58 loss to Brainerd in the section tournament.
Derek Johnson enters his second season as head coach of the boys’ basketball team, and he felt that the team continually improved last season and was playing its best basketball at the end of it. Now, he hopes the trend can continue in the new season.
“We’re going to be a different team, so we have to figure out who we are as a team,” Johnson said.
The Knights bring back some key pieces from last year’s team, including Xavier Thurman and Cody Mattson, who got a lot of experience as sophomores. Other key players, such as Asaba Chomilo and Travis Brown also return.
“Hopefully we can use their experience and continue to build while welcoming a bunch of new guys to varsity basketball,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that he talks with Anfenson about different things concerning the team.
“He still has an incredible interest and love for the program that he built, and he’s always a resource. I’m pretty sure he knows the ins and outs of every single aspect of what we do.”
Making a prediction on how the season will go is difficult at this point, Johnson said, because he is not thinking about a specific win total. Instead, Johnson hopes that the team will continue to push itself to improve.
“If we come close to reaching our potential as a group, then we can count that as a success.”
Johnson’s favorite part of last year was watching the team develop from the beginning of the year and battling adversity along the way to become a better team by the end of it.
The Knights have another tough schedule with some new opponents including Owatonna, Maple Grove, Anoka and Chaska, which should all provide a unique challenge to STMA.
The Knights open the season December 6 at home against Elk River.