“It’s January, it’s time to grow up, we’re not young anymore, we’re not making that excuse.”
That’s the message that Head Coach Jeff Tobin of the Washington Boys Basketball team preached to his players. And it’s a lesson the young team has embraced, ralling off four straight wins this month to become one of the hottest squads in the state.
“I feel like it’s fun to see the growth in the short amount of time and now it’s fun to see them progress as we get into the next month and a half,” said Tobin.
The Warriors currently have one of the youngest groups in AA, with just two seniors listed on the roster, and along with a handful of juniors to lead the way.
Experience is crucial for success at the AA level and as Washington looked to develop and find their rhythm, they suffered early losses to Lincoln and Harrisburg. But Coach Tobin knew that as long as they focused on competing everyday, that experience would develop.
“Even dating back to last spring after we got done with our season last year we did some meetings with our guys that would be coming back. We just said it was going to be a process and we need to be patient.
“[We’re] just trying to keep that steady mindset of you know it’s not all going to come at once, it’s going to be a process we’re going to continue to grow, continue to learn and be okay with some setbacks there because that’s ultimately going to be propels us forward.”
The Warriors continued to press on through Christmas, and broke through with a big win (66-51) over Jefferson at the Sanford Pentagon on December 29th.
That victory in the environment at the President’s Bowl gave Washington the confidence it needs to prove they can compete with anyone.
“It was huge, especially because of the atmosphere at the Pentagon,” Tobin said of the victory.
“To find some rhythm and to find some flow and really just find a good connection with our guys. It was fun to see and we’ve just kind of tried to build off that.
“We’ve tried to find some identity for our team and what we’re going to be able to hang our hat on each night, so we’re really excited about the steps we’ve taken, and Jefferson was kind of that first step we took in the right direction.”
Washington then entered January with a 3-3 record and two quick matchups against Aberdeen and Pierre. The Warriors then gutted out a pair of wins, first a 72-66 road victory at Aberdeen before coming back home and taking down Pierre 56-40.
Throwing in a win over Marshall (MN) twelve days later, and Washington was picking up steam heading into Tuesday night’s matchup against crosstown rival, Lincoln.
“Those two wins were really instrumental. As we went into Aberdeen, it’s just a tough place to go play…Aberdeen played really well that night so we had to make enough shots to win and it was a really fun trip in the end.
“It set off good vibes coming back home and two days later turning around and playing Pierre, who we knew they were going to be physical.
“So to get through that one and play really well and defensively lock them down and hold them to a pretty low scoring total, it was really encouraging to know that we might be a team that can hold teams down and defensively be able to do some things that keep us in ballgames.”
On Tuesday, the Patriots took the early lead due to 12 turnovers from the Warriors, but Washington carried their defensive effort from earlier matchups into the contest and held Lincoln’s lead to just four points at halftime. The Warriors then chipped away during the second half, and held on for the 53-50 win.
“Just credit to our guys for taking advantage of the moment and getting it down to zeros with us pulling it out.
“We handled the pressure a lot better, we knocked down shots at key moments, we had plenty of times where we could have caved in and rolled over but we didn’t and we found a way to get a stop and get a rebound and then go down and score.”
And while the fruits of their labor look to begin to pay off, Washington is still very focused on trying to improve daily through game-like environments at practice that have helped accelerate the experience required at this level.
“Just creating that atmosphere in practice that we’re going to compete in, we’re going to bring that intensity and then be able to best replicate what we can feel in a ballgame. You can see that it’s carried over so when we get to a game it’s like, ‘okay we’ve experienced this in practice, we’re ready for this moment.’”
Coach Tobin has also credited the aforementioned junior class as leaders who have stepped up in their roles this season.
“They’ve been tremendous. It’s a close-net group which helps. They understand how to cover up for each other. One of the things we said coming into the season is we have to develop leadership and we’ve seen guys step up at various moments.
“We just have a group that’s okay with different guys leading at different times, understanding that your going to have to pick somebody up at a certain moments and that’s kind of different than what we’ve had the last couple of years.
“But at the same time, it’s encouraging to know we have a lot of guys that are developing into those leaders and can take the bull by the horns at certain times. Whether that’s knocking down shots or getting things going in practice. It’s fun to see us grow in that manner.”
Now the Warriors will prepare for a pair of tough contests this weekend. First, they’ll take on the O’Gorman Knights tonight at home before turning around and playing the Jefferson Cavaliers in a rematch on Saturday. And like the game before, the Warriors are going to use these matchups to continue to grow and develop as they make their way to the SoDak 16.
“We’re just looking for intense Metro [Conference] ball games. Going into the season we couldn’t tell our guys what they were in for because they hadn’t experienced it yet.
“But now they’ve experienced it and now going into this week we’ve said we have a kind of mini state tournament in a way. You’re playing really quality teams with a day in between for practice and prep and you’ve got to be excited about it.
“So it’s a fun challenge and we’re looking forward to the challenge. We want to compete, we want to grow, we want to learn and we’re just going to put it all on the floor.”
This article is our part of our coaches’ interview series presented by The Move Group. To see the complete list, check out our website below.
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