Veteran Derry boys basketball team looks to end postseason drought
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Wednesday, November 22, 2017 | 4:48 PM
Could this be a breakthrough season for Derry basketball? Boys coach Damon Rause and the playoff-starved Trojans think so.
With five starters returning, it seems to make perfect sense.
“This year is probably the most excitement I've seen with the program in a long time,” said Rause, a Derry graduate who is starting his seventh season as coach. “This is the most talent Derry has had in, what, 15 years?”
The Trojans, who last made an appearance in the WPIAL playoffs in 2007-08 — despite a 7-18 record — have produced just one non-losing season in Rause's first six years as coach (11-11 in 2012-13, his first year).
Eight players who have appeared in the starting lineup at various times are back from the 2016-17 team, which went 6-15 to improve on the previous year's 0-22 record.
Chief among them are senior Conner Watt, a 5-foot-10 point guard, who established a school record for steals in a season, and junior John Kerr, a 6-4 forward, who set a single-season mark for blocked shots.
“(Kerr) will be one of the surprises of the section,” Rause said.
Derry, which opens the year by playing host to a four-team tournament Dec. 8-9, posted a 3-9 record in Section 1-4A a year ago.
“There is a lot to look forward to this year,” Watt said. “In the past, we've used excuses — we're young, there were injuries — but there are no excuses this year. We've been playing together for a while. We should be able to contend.”
Rause was more to the point.
“We have a shot at winning the section if we play together,” he said. “Normally, I wouldn't say that, but this has been brewing for some time now.”
Indiana is the defending Section 1-4A champion, winning by a one-game margin over Freeport. Derry finished sixth among the seven-team lineup.
More than 30 Derry students responded for the start of camp this fall, a larger-than-usual number, Rause said. He sees it as a sign of growing interest at a school not known for basketball success.
“Our rec league, our seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade teams have been excellent. This, by far, is the most talent we've had together at one time,” he said. “It's exciting.”
Joining Watt and Kerr as returning starters for Derry are 6-3 senior forward Anthony Oshie and two sophomores guards, 6-0 Aiden Bushey and 5-9 Justin Huss.
Others veterans include 6-1 senior forward Will Huss and 6-1 senior guard Chuck Webb.
A run of two highly-successful football seasons has brought a renewed awareness of what a winning tradition can bring to a rural school such as Derry and its communities.
The Trojans, just three years after an 0-10 season in which they were outscored 563-60, made a run in 2016 to the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals and came away with an 11-1 record.
They went 9-2 this year and qualified for the playoffs for a second consecutive time.
“You see the whole community come together for that team,” Watt said. “They're excited. That's what we want to do.”
Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.
Tags: Derry Area
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