Atypical season for Seward comes to disappointing end

by Chance Plett
Sports editor

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The Saints basketball program is not accustomed to losing. In the storied history of Seward County basketball the team accumulated a 225-76 record in the past nine years, six consecutive 22 win seasons, made the playoffs the past ten years, and have been ranked in the top twenty in the nation for the past six seasons. That, of course, was before this year, where the Saints had their first losing season in the eight year tenure of Seward County head coach Dave Brown.

Brown admits that he was unsure how to handle such a different situation.

"I never lost before and some of the time I didn't know how to really deal with it," Brown said. "I really don't want to go through this again. I have talked to a lot of other coaches and they said I would have a year like this and hopefully the next one will be in thirty years."

Brown thought the team would struggle after the team lost a few players.

"I don't like going through losing," Brown said. "I knew from the beginning when we lost two big time players before the season started I wasn't naive enough to think that we wouldn't struggle. We have to have a force inside which we didn't this season."

Seward County finished the season with a 9-21 record winning eight of their games before the start of conference play during the first half of the season. In the conference season the team finished with a record of 1-15, their only win coming against Pratt Community College 68-67 on Valentine's Day in Pratt. The team was able to keep some of the games close forcing two conference games into overtime but eventually lost both of those games in the extra frame.

The Saints' finished up their season on Sophomore Recognition night last Feb. 28 at the Green House against Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons. Seward lost their final game 69-51. The Saints' were lead by Keoni Watson who scored 14 points on four of nine shooting from the field and two for four behind the three point arch during 23 minutes of play. Seward only shot 31.1percent from the field in the game. The Saints' also got out rebounded by 25 (57-32). The team only nabbed 23 defensive rebounds and nine offensive rebounds compared to Hutch's 36 defensive rebounds and 23 offensive boards.

Coach Brown points the finger at miss shots and getting out rebounded for the team's demise versus Hutchinson.

"In the Hutch game, I think that we were pretty solid defensively. We only had six turnovers at the half but it's hard to have the lead when you shoot 22percent," Brown said. "Hutch had a lot to do with (our poor shooting) with their defensive play. For the game we only shot 30percent. It's hard to win conference games when we shoot 30percent and get out rebounded by 20 rebounds."

The Saints where a very young team this season having 15 freshmen on the team and only one sophomore (Jesse Swonger) that played during the course of the season. Coach Brown and Assistant Head Coach Swede Trenkle will evaluate the players that they believe will be the best "fit" for next season's squad.

"Over the course of the next couple of months we will be evaluating some of the kids that we have on the program now and bring recruits here in March and the beginning of April," Brown said. "We are looking for the players that will make sacrifices and do what it takes for we can win to get back to where this program was, in the top twenty in the nation, and the upper echelon of the Jayhawk West

The Saints brought in three players at the beginning of this semester. Though these three players weren't able to play with the team in the games, they were allowed to practice and learn the system in which they could be playing in next season.

The Seward County coaches are also evaluating these players to determine if they will sign them to play for the Saints next season.

Coach Brown is excited and optimistic about next season. Brown is also pleased with some of the players progression throughout this season.

"Next year looks good," Brown said. "I think we will be able to rebuild the team, and we have some kids that have gotten some valuable playing experience this year and I expect things will be a lot different next season."

Coach Brown is also going to be hitting the recruiting trail here in the next few months looking for the talent needed to be able to compete next season with the rest of the Jayhawk West.

"Recruiting is going well," Brown said. "I want to find the guys that will work hard and bring back the toughness to the team that we've had in the past and was absent this season."