BROCKTON, Mass. – It’s safe to say that the better team came away with the 68-42 victory in the Division 2 South semi-finals Tuesday night.
But even with the loss to Stoughton, the lasting impression left by the Oliver Ames senior class will be a lasting one for head coach Don Byron.
“We have kids who played a lot, kids who didn’t play much at all, and kids who improved like crazy to bring us to the point where we’re here [in the south semis],” said Byron, whose team finished with a record of 14-9.
“The legacy of OA basketball; they’ve become a part of. And also we wanted to stress to them [afterwards] that a year ago where we got to this level, it had been until 1999 where we got to that level. And we said to them that ‘you’ve done it twice in a row’ and trying to get past the disappointment that every team who plays in the tournament has – except for the one who ultimately wins it – and I think when they look back on it that they’ll be satisfied that they had a heck of a career here.”
Indeed the six-member class of 2012 – Lance Handy, Denzel Bennett, John Moroney, Andrew Babbitt, and co-captains Nick Bruha and Alex Tepper – have put together an impressive basketball resume at Oliver Ames and their leadership will certainly be missed.
For Bruha, who scored his 1,000th career point earlier this season, that legacy started when he made the varsity team as a freshman under former OA coach Creig Muscato. His high school career flourished when Byron took over as coach for the 2009-10 campaign – he started more than 70 career games over his final three seasons.
Because of his impressive career, Bruha’s presence will certainly be missed both on and off the court.
“It’s going to be real odd not having him in the gym,” Byron said of Bruha. “He’s been running the team [the past three years]. When I came he was a sophomore and he started every game for three years. So that’s about 70 games being in control of the team every single night.”
“He’s another guy who I’ve known for a long time,” Byron continued. “I remember Nick as a 5-year old kid hanging with his older brother [Matt] down at the Attleboro YMCA and you just saw him grow. He had a terrific career.”
Bruha’s presence as a catalyst is certainly felt, but the commitments of the other five seniors should certainly be noticed.
Despite missing most of the season with a wrist injury, Tepper’s commitment is something the team will not forget. Despite a lack of playing time, Handy still worked hard and left it all on the floor when his number was called, while Moroney and Bennett provided the Tigers with a good bench presence and Babbitt’s improvement in his second year of organized basketball was noticed by many in Easton.
It’s safe to say that these six seniors have carried the torch for three years. And now they have passed that torch to the future of the program.