Surprise start to '07-'08 season

By Anadjeet Khahera
Sports Editor

Another season, another coach. It comes as no surprise the Hercules High School boys’ varsity basketball team is starting the season with yet another coach. What does come as a surprise, however, is their 3-2 record.

The Titans opened the year with a hard-fought game against San Juan High School of Sacramento. Led by senior forward Jean Jean-Phillipe, who racked up a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds, the Titans took the game into the final quarter, but ended up four points short of the Spartans. The final score was 73-69.

“It was a tough game,” said Jean-Phillipe, who is playing his third year of varsity basketball. “The end result wasn’t what we wanted, but we learned a lot from that game.”

Letting their actions speak louder than words, they went into the next game firing on all cylinders. With Joseph Scott leading the charge with 16 points, the boys evened up their record at 1-1 with a 60-55 victory against Tamalpais High.

The next two games were won in decisive fashions as the newly-charged Titans defeated the Albany Cougars 52-41 and the Burton Pumas 54-46 in a span of four days.

Last Wednesday, the Titans suffered their second loss, 70-43, at the hands of the 9-0 Kennedy Eagles. Jean-Phillipe once again led the Titans with 12 points on six field goals.

New coach Drew Evans is taking a slightly more laidback approach compared to previous coaches. Evans was the former head coach of junior varsity and was promoted to the position.

“Coach lets us be free,” said junior guard Marcus Victor. “He makes the game a lot simpler.”
“I want to change the players’ game and practice atmospheres,” said Evans.

With this new approach, players are allowed to focus on the demands Evans desires from his players.
“We’re more aware of what’s going on,” said Victor.

Along with this raised level of alertness, the Titans are “feeding off each other’s energy more and more,” added Victor.

Chemistry between Evans and the players has landed the Titans with their first winning record since the 2004-05 season.

In addition, although Evans has only been a varsity coach for less than a month, he knows his players well, due to his experiences with them in the JV and freshmen levels.

“It’s like a reuion, even though we never left,” said Evans, who coached the JV to winning records each of his two seasons.

Evans will have an advantage coaching a team composed of nine seniors, including Jean-Phillipe, Scott, Donte Glover, Royce Spencer and Sunday Bejide.

The coaching staff, which includes new assistant coaches, Ray Thomas, Moyce Howard and Jesse Wilson, will be utilizing the speed of the team for an up-tempo style of play. On the defensive side, the Titans will implement full court pressure, while offensively, quick passing and fast break drills will use speed to the team’s advantage.

“We have to run, because of our lack of height,” said Evans, who compared their new system to that of the Golden State Warriors.

This Cinderella story in the making was not always a fairytale, as the former head coach, Lawrence Smith, unexpectedly resigned 10 days before the season began.

Smith, who was entering his third year as head coach, told the coaching staff and players his resignation was due to ‘family matters,’ but he later shed new light when he said “he felt his hand was forced.”

“I didn’t want to be a distraction for the players or program,” said Smith, about keeping everyone in the dark about the situation. “I tried to be as diplomatic as possible.”

With Smith stepping down, Evans slipped in as the most logical choice.

Even with a winning record and a stable system, Evans has found elements the experienced team needs to polish.

“We need to improve fundamentally overall, but some specifics include passing, especially to the post players,” said Evans.

The Titans enter this season with a chip on their shoulders after enduring a 14-game losing streak last season, the longest in the school’s history; all of which came from teams in the highly competitive Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League.

“We have something to prove to ourselves after last year’s disappointing season,” said Jean-Phillipe.
The varsity team begins league play Jan. 8 with a visit to Berkeley High and will hold their first ACCAL home game Jan. 15 against Alameda.

With the season unfolding, the Titans are just starting to prove themselves and, soon enough, maybe their victories will no longer be surprises.