Buccaneer Boys basketball season recap
March 29, 2018
Two words to describe the 2017-18 Grand Haven Varsity boys basketball season are triumph and courage. This past season was full of excitement and pride but also road bumps and adversity.
The squad finished off the season with a 14-8 record and a loss to Muskegon in the District finals, a team they beat earlier this year. Sadly, they did not accomplish their coveted goal of a conference championship. Despite not achieving everything they had hoped for, this team grew stronger and stronger as the season progressed, even if the record said otherwise. Week in and week out, new athletes would step into bigger roles, helping steer the Buccaneer ship.
“I think a lot of guys had to step up and do some different things,” Varsity basketball coach, Greg Immink said. “So different guys being put into different roles, it took us a little bit, but eventually we got it figured out.”
The team started off the season 7-1 and finished off 7-7, a challenge for this team was the injury of their star point guard, junior Casey Constant.
“I don’t wanna put it all on an injury but a big part of what we did was Casey Constant, and you know [he’s] the only returning starter from last year’s team, a guy who had the ball in his hands alot and contributed in a lot of ways,” Immink said.
Constant was a pivotal part of the teams offense and with him hurt, the team was faced with the challenge of reworking their game plan once again.
“So obviously any time you lose an all conference type player, it takes some readjustment and it took us a few games to get readjusted to some new roles with new guys, some new responsibilities for some new guys and some guys had to play a new position and so it took us a little bit,” Immink said.
Although the Constant injury most definitely halted the teams success, it strengthened the team in many ways as well. This injury called for different athletes to step up, quickly. As the season progressed, many players rose to the occasion and accepted the challenge.
“I think a lot of guys had to step up and do some different things,” Immik said. “Obviously, Kellum Bridgeforth stepped up in the scoring department, he was averaging 17 points a game in the league and had some huge games, you know the Caledonia game, him and malic didn’t wanna lose.”
This season was also very unique in terms of youth talent. Sophomore’s such as Owen Ross and Andrew Sinke had a big role on this team, setting the bar high for what’s to come.
“We had a pretty good balance of seniors, juniors and sophomores this year and for those guys returning obviously they’re gonna be thrust into a different role,” Immink said. “I think our guys can improve a lot and there will be some big roles for our guys to step into and we’ll have to see who’s ready for the challenge.”
Opposed to the last few seasons, this team was most definitely not blessed with height. This of course meant, if the team wished to do well, shots must fall. This years team made 174 three point baskets this season, setting a new school record. They were also a very quick and elusive group, recording 284 steals, the most since 1995.
At the end of the day, Coach Immink was very proud of his team’s drive and the way they finished out the year. The boys were able to beat the rival Rockford Rams, a conference foe Grandville Bulldogs team and outside of conference play, they took a very strong Forest Hills Central team down to the wire.
“Proud of how our guys pulled out of it at the end of the year,” Immink said. “I felt like we got our trajectory back on the right path, you know upward trajectory.”