Photo by Cari Dean.
Jospeh Lanzi is one of four returning starters for Chelsea.
The Chelsea High School boys basketball team has high hopes for the 2016-2017 season, and rightfully so.
The Hornets return four of the five starters off a team that reached the Class 6A Northeast Regional for the first time in school history and had an opportunity to advance further.
“For us, after the last two years, just winning the area was big. Getting to the Sweet 16, we just never had done that,” said head coach Nick Baumbaugh.
The Hornets had not won an area tournament before last year since 1986 and never advanced past the sub-regional round.
“I think our goals have changed, where before — obviously we want to win an area championship — it’s not that we settled for the regional last year, but I think we were OK with it. When that ended, I was sick to my stomach, knowing that we’re on the cusp,” Baumbaugh said.
Chelsea’s loss to Center Point in the regional stung so intensely because the Hornets played well enough to win for the majority of the game, but a few lapses in the final minutes sent the Hornets to a crushing defeat.
“We’re right there on the edge, and I don’t think this year’s any different,” Baumbaugh said. “Our goals are the same as last year. We want to get to the regional.”
Aaron Washington is the only starter from last season’s squad that Baumbaugh has to replace. Washington averaged nearly 16 points per game as a senior and is now playing at Huntington College.
Joseph Lanzi and Matthew Marquet provided a great deal of production last season, and will be expected to do the same this year. Sam Towery and Josh Hanna are the two other returning starters that Chelsea will expect to produce an uptick in their numbers.
With the returning experience, Baumbaugh did not have to dedicate as much preseason preparation to teaching as he normally would, but there is a fair number of players on this year’s squad who played on the junior varsity team last year — a successful group that posted an 18-3 record.
Baumbaugh’s coaching style is not overly complicated. His teams will never out-gimmick another or throw dozens of different looks at the opponent during a game. Chelsea has its base set of principles and executes them well.
“We like to run offense. We’re not a run-and-gun style,” Baumbaugh said. “We tried to do that when I started here, but I learned very quickly that wasn’t going to work for us. That wasn’t our personnel. Our personnel says buckle down on the defensive end and offensively, have great possessions.”
While not expecting to dominate teams on the defensive end, the Hornets’ focus is to “make the other team work for its baskets.”
As far as advancing deep into the postseason, Chelsea faces a challenging road. Only the top two teams advance to the sub-regional round, and Class 6A, Area 10 consists of Pelham and Helena along with the Hornets. All three are expected to field high-quality teams, meaning that one dangerous team will be eliminated before the playoffs even begin.
Chelsea certainly has the potential to ensure that it is not that team.
