There was a time when playing in the summer leagues was a rite of the season for high school basketball players. But that fervor has cooled a bit, as teams instead head to team camps and varsity scrimmages of sorts against other teams.
“It’s hard just organizing transportation and getting players to the gym to play a game of 20 minutes running clock, and to pay out that money for the league,” Jackson Liberty High School coach Mark Lax said as his team was scheduled to play its first “scrimmage” on July 3 against Howell High School at Jackson Liberty.
The good part is that all of its scrimmages are at Jackson Liberty against opponents such as Middletown High School North, Middletown High School South, Ocean Township High School, St. John Vianney High School, Raritan High School and Toms River High School North.
“We did this last year. You can play all night. You’re not confined to a clock,” Lax said. “If you have to work on something with your defense, the other coach is willing to stop the game with you and set up his offense to go against that kind of defense. Or you can set your defense for the way he wants for his certain kind of offense he wants to run. Everybody gets a chance to get better.”
Matawan Regional High School coach Tom Stead, whose team won its first state sectional last season, also skipped the summer leagues and had his team play in team camps at East Brunswick and Princeton University.
“I don’t think you get a lot out of the summer leagues,” Stead said. “You don’t get time to do much with the 20-minute clock. We may have some game-controlled tri-scrimmages with teams.”
Although only two players graduate from last year’s Jackson Liberty team, James Sofield and Mike Healy were integral parts of the team. Sofield, the school’s first basketball player to score 1,000 career points, is going on to a college baseball career at NCAA Division I New Jersey Institute of Technology as a pitcher and second baseman. Lax needs the time these days to teach players individually, as the Liberty Lions will be doing things a lot differently this year.
“We just don’t have scoring experience,” Lax said. “Sofield led the team the last four years. It’ll be a little different at Liberty.”
That means different schemes, with more emphasis on passing to open players.
“There’ll be a little less isolation. James created his own shots,” Lax said. “We’ll be a little bigger and will look for the offense to create shots.”
The Liberty Lions got a sense of that more than they wanted to when Sofield missed about half the season with mononucleosis, a fractured finger and a calf injury. The Liberty Lions didn’t have the time to adjust their style much at that point like they do now. Although it gave players like senior J’son Clark more of an opportunity to respond in Sofield’s absence, the team’s offense sputtered and wins were tougher to come by. The Liberty Lions lost their last six games of the season, mostly without Sofield, and finished 9-14, losing in the opening round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III tournament to Long Branch High School, 41-32. The Liberty Lions started 4-1, but Sofield got injured. They had victories later in the season over Point Pleasant Borough High School, 58-56, and Brick Township High School, 59-49.
Lax likes to play extended man-toman defense, but he felt it was tough to do with the lack of all-around size.
The team will scrimmage and work out until the second week of August, when some players who are also on the football team begin preseason workouts. That includes starting point guard Matt Castronuova, who stars in the defensive backfield on the football team and has drawn a lot of interest from college recruiters.
Also back in the basketball starting lineup are senior forward Howard Taylor, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, and senior guard Ryan Brennan.
Others vying for time include senior guards Rodney Griffin and Brian Smith, junior guard Gage Corson, and junior forwards Mackenzie Perry, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, and 6-foot-3 Sonto Emenugo.
Lax can only hope the many untested players learn fast from their crash course over the summer.