Someone pulled Jay JV coach Wade Morrill aside during halftime of last weekend’s contest with Winthrop and asked him about the “new kid” who was making his home debut that night.
“He and his folks just moved up from South Carolina,” Morrill said. “Merry Christmas to us.”
The buzz leading up to that game revolved around former Tigers’ coach Steve Hamilton returning to Jay in Rambler green and white. By the end of Jay’s 64-48 victory, however, the talk around the Tigerdome concerned a recent arrival rather than Hamilton’s recent departure.
Sean Fry, a 6-foot-5 senior, started at center and announced his presence immediately to Jay fans by scoring the Tigers’ first eight points. Fry displayed his range by nailing back-to-back 18-footers, then showed he could be a force in the paint with a jump hook in the lane and a layup.
Fry finished the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds, leading his team in both categories despite being plagued by foul trouble. He followed that performance with a team-high 13 points in the Tigers’ win over Monmouth Tuesday.
“Everybody’s been real nice to me. The guys on the team are awesome,” Fry said. I like the coaching staff and the fans, so you can’t go wrong.”
Fry, who was a starter at a school with an enrollment of 3,100 in South Carolina, first suited up for the Tigers in an exhibition with Valley of Bingham over Christmas break. He then made his official regular-season debut in a road win over Carrabec.
Fry, 6-5 senior Zach Charles and 6-3 senior Marc Kelvey give the Tigers one of the conference’s biggest front lines
“He gives us more depth, there’s no doubt about it,” said Jay coach Mike Child. “He makes it a little easier for Zach not having to do all of the rebounding and scoring down low for us.”
Sentimental journey
Hamilton’s return to Jay didn’t go quite the way he’d hoped, but the Winthrop coach did experience a number of emotions coaching against the team he had coached the last two years and known much longer.
“It is sentimental thing,” Hamilton said following the game. “I’ve known these guys since third and fourth grade. I coached them. I built that team, and they’re really great kids.”
Name that team
Scouting an undefeated team is difficult enough, but anyone who scouts Mountain Valley this season will have difficulty getting a definite reading on who the Falcons will put on the floor down the stretch in the tight game.
In Tuesday night’s win over Georges Valley, coach Ryan Casey elected to sit junior center Jarod Oldham, who was having some foul trouble, in the closing minutes in favor of senior Matt McCann. Freshman Andy Shorey and sophomores Jeremy Childs and Travis Fergola have also seen some pressure minutes this season while more experienced starters have sat on the bench.
Casey said his team’s depth gives him the luxury of using different combinations at crunch time.
“We have 9 or 10 legitimate guys who can make some kind of impact,” Casey said. “None of them are game-breakers, none of them are superstars, but they all are very good role players who do anything to help the team win.”
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