Young Saugatuck boys basketball team hopes to take positive steps forward this season

By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
As Ty Rock enters his second season as head coach in Saugatuck, he does so with a largely young and inexperienced team.
The senior tandem of guard Sammy Gamboa and forward Sam Bos are the only two players back from last season’s 3-20 squad.
“We have a lot of newcomers this year with only two returning players from last year’s team,” said Rock, who previously had a successful coaching stint with archrival Fennville.
Despite the youthful makeup of the roster, Rock expects his team to take several steps forward compared to last season.
“Last year was a disappointing year and we look to bounce back,” he said. “We expect to take a step forward with a lot of newcomers of all different grades.
“This year I believe the team will be more connected and will have many different contributing players on any given night.”
A trio of first-year seniors—forward Brennan Nor and guards Noah Conklin and Isaac Cruz—lead the list of newcomers.
“With so many newcomers, it’s tough to say what our strengths will be as a team,” Rock said. “I believe that it is possible we can be a solid defensive team with the amount of guys we have and each individual skill set should complement each other.
“This can also be our weakness, as with so many newcomers we don’t have the experience or rotations in what our lineup is going to look like.”
Given the unknowns that come with a young roster, Rock intends to do quite a bit of mixing and matching with lineup combinations at the start of the season.
“We expect to experiment a lot early to find our footing fast with games starting,” he said
When he looks at the divisional race, Rock thinks there is a clear line of delineation.
“Our division is split between the top three and the bottom three,” he said. “If you look at who is returning from the previous year, the top teams returned almost everyone.
“I do believe the bottom of our division got better and you never know. It could be a competitive conference between all teams.”
Rock’s hope is that his team will challenge for a spot in the top half of the standings.
“We are looking to take a step forward and compete with that top tier,” he said. “I think all of our conference games will be a battle and if we don’t come ready to play every night, the results are not going to be pretty.”