The Berkshire Badgers boys’ basketball team’s season ended with a whimper last year, but the Badgers are ready to turn the page. As the Badgers begin a new season, they will be fueled by a dynamic junior class that will focus on turning defense into offense.
“We are playing better defense because we really have a group that can get after it on the defensive end so that is what I am really about,” Coach Joe Montanero told The Weekly Villager on Nov. 29.
Despite having graduated three of their top scorers, the third-year coach said that Berkshire will lean on its junior class of seven players to anchor the team. According to him, the junior class has developed a great understanding of Montanero’s fast-paced system and will use what they have learned to push the Badgers to their first winning season since the 2021-22 campaign.
The junior class returns with plenty of experience, as most of the players received significant varsity playing time as sophomores and gained even more experience at the end of last year when two of Berkshire’s seniors suffered season-ending injuries.
According to Montanero, that difficult stretch has helped the Badgers’ junior class for the better.
“The class is just really talented and most of them have played together,” he added. “They talk about it since they were in third or fourth grade so just that teamwork and everything they have together is just a really good thing.”
Although last year was Montanero’s second year at the helm, the Badgers still struggled to run an up-tempo offense and were plagued by turnovers. He acknowledged that there were still some things Berkshire needed to learn about his system. As the Badgers enter the third year of the Montanero era, the Berkshire coach is confident that things will run smoother.
“We just turned the ball over last year more than we should have and we tried to play a little faster last year but it was the first time that those guys have ever played at that pace, so now that we have had the system in for a good two years, I think that is why the guys we still have are buying into it and they are doing a really good job with it,” he said.
The Badgers return only two players from last year’s starting five, including junior forward Cameron Beam, who averaged 7.0 points per game as a sophomore.
“He is going to have way more responsibilities and he has grown into that really well and he plays harder than anybody on the floor every single night and he has really improved his offensive skills and his leadership, so we are just looking for big things for (from?) him,” Montanero said of the 6-foot forward.
Berkshire’s other returning starter is senior guard Gavin Hipp, the only senior in the rotation, who tallied 8.5 points per game last season.
Montanero said that the 6-foot-1 Hipp brings plenty of varsity experience and leadership to the starting five.
One of the three newcomers to the starting five is junior point guard Jake Patterson, who enters his first year as a varsity player.
“He is really good and he has done a really good job at controlling the game and he has a little bit more offense than people realize and I think people will see that,” Montanero noted of the 5-foor-8 point guard. “He has handled the ball really well, he does not turn it over which is a really good thing.”
Junior forward Luke Stute also enters the starting five and Montanero spoke highly of the 6-foot-1 junior’s athletic ability.
“I think he led the area in interceptions, and he is the guy who is probably always going to guard the number one player on the other team,” he added.
The final member of Berkshire’s starting five will be junior forward Caden McGranahan, who will bring some size to the post.
“He played a lot of varsity minutes last year,” Montero said of the 6-foot-1 forward. “He has grown a little bit and he is playing underneath for us a little bit but he can shoot it as a stretch 4.”
Montanero said he also expects the Badgers to be competitive in a crowded Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division that consists of Crestwood, Kirtland and Wickliffe.
Following its season opener against CVC rival Independence in a crossover conference duel on Wednesday night, Berkshire will stay on the road and face Garfield at the JAG Fieldhouse in Garrettsville on Friday night at 7 p.m.
