O'Grady to coach Yellowjackets

By ZENDA FARREL | Milton Independent Sports Writer

Varsity Boys' Basketball: (back row, L-R) John Menard, Josh Patterson, Andrew Menard, Mike Phelps, Mike Bordeux, Alex Duchesneau, Jim O'Grady; (front row, L-R) Steve Mahoney, Dustin Hendy, Joe Emery, Bryan Geary, B. J. Potvin.

The Yellowjackets have a new coach stepping up to fill the shoes of Chris Brown this year but the coach is no stranger to basketball. Jim O’Grady, MHS physical educator and long time basketball coach at the youth, junior high and JV levels and assistant coach at college level, is up for the challenge.

“I first started coaching in 1984 at Lamoille Union which coincidentally, is where we will play our first game. For the last six years I have been director and president of Milton Youth Basketball and Milton Mini Metro Basketball. My hope is to help return the program to where it was in the early 90’s. I believe that your high school program is only as strong as your youth program, which is why I will stay involved with all basketball from K-12 to ensure that we have future, talented, high school basketball players who will not have to be retrained.”

Jim’s assistants this year are Chris Dumouchel and John Menard. Meanwhile the varsity boys are hard at work preparing for the season.

Team members include seniors Bryan Geary, Michael Phelps, Joe Emery, Steve Mahoney; juniors BJ Potvin, Dustin Hendy, Alex Duchesneau, Josh Patterson; sophomores Andrew Menard, Mike Bordeaux and Jordan O’Grady. Team manager is Will Noel.

“These young men have shown improvement over the last two weeks. In our first scrimmage against Lake Region, we struggled with rebounding and taking care of the ball but we were able to correct both of these areas in our second scrimmage against Stowe. The intensity in practice has increased over the last week and the hope is for this to continue to improve throughout the season.

We will count on the seniors to demonstrate good leadership and presence on the court both offensively and defensively. Our goal is to keep turnovers low, concentrate on defense and rebound to the ball well in every game. We will be expecting big things from Mike Phelps and Bryan Geary on the offensive end as they are our best inside/outside threats. If we can continue to improve our defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball we will be competitive throughout the year. My goal for our team is to have the chance to win at the end of every game. I have seen some promising things in the last week of practice and if we continue, the game will be easier.”

The first game is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m.in Lamoille and the first home game will be against Winooski, on Thursday, Dec. 6. Go Yellowjackets!!