MALDEN -- Malden boys basketball's new head coach Cole McBroom finds himself in unfamiliar territory.
Not only is he a first-year coach who has to teach his system to his players to prepare them for the year, but all of his players are present for the start of the season for the first time in quite some time.
Malden's football team is known for making deep runs in its state tournament, which occupies some of the basketball players until at least mid-November, but this year's season ended in October for just the second time this decade.
"With it being my first year, with them not playing football up until the state finals, it was good because there's just so much teaching. Any time it's a first-year guy, you have to teach terminology; you offense, what defense you like. So, them not being gone with football was good because I could teach more, but at the same time, success breeds success, so if they would've been gone for football, I would've been more than OK with it because I just feel like every school that has a good football program, the basketball program might start off slow but there towards the end, they're always playing well," McBroom said.
For players like seniors Tye Miller and Dominique Townsend, juniors Kristian Hollmann, Daniel Burrow and Shay Amoss, and sophomores Lamar Smith and Chris Castillo, being around for the start of the season feels odd.
"It's different," Miller said. "The last few years, we get in and pretty much hop straight into scrimmages, you know, just learning plays on the fly. Now, we actually have time to go through the progressions of what we want to do on every play, so it's easier. We have more time to learn it."
While they're having to learn McBroom's style of play and implement his philosophy, that prolonged period of preparation provides precious time to get comfortable amidst a season of change.
"Don't get me wrong, every team wishes they could compete deep into the playoffs during football season," Townsend said. "But I mean, it gave us time to get comfortable and get conditioned. We had time to come in here, get in shape and see how things work and got to know coach."
The seniors are being dealt much more responsibility this season, too. After graduating nine players from last year's squad, the players are looking forward to the challenge of shouldering a heavier load and living up to the standard set by last year's 22-7 group.
"We don't have as much experience because we graduated so many," Miller said. "That kind of helps with (McBroom) being a new coach, too, because even though we were on the varsity team last year, we didn't get as much playing time, so now it's just easier to learn his ways and adapt to it. There is pressure, though. We have to live up to that Malden that we've built the last couple of years and get some wins."
Added Townsend, "It's not like a drastic change as it is for like a four-year starter having to change his entire game completely, but it's more comfortable. It's one of those moments where you have to just pick it up and run with it, make the most out of what you've got."
As for McBroom's system, the players see it as a more free-flowing system that allows them to play loose and have fun.
"We wants us to just play our type of basketball. He wants us to just go out there and do our own thing and see what we can do, how we handle the ball and all of that," said senior Lonnie Hamilton. We have to just sit down on D, do what we can do and make them commit turnovers."
With a more open system like the one the players are learning, some of them feel more comfortable using their athleticism and attacking the rim to score points in bunches.
"(Former coach Andrew Halford) is a good coach, he really is. I respect the man. But I feel more comfortable in this system because, you know, being an athlete, it's kind of hard to go through all the sets when you just want to attack the rim half of the time, so I just like this system a lot more," Townsend said.
Throughout the summer, McBroom didn't spend too much time implementing terminology and sets. Instead, he let the players do a lot of scrimmaging so he could figure out how they play and see what skill sets they offer while allowing himself time to get to know each person.
"I went with more of the relational side of the coaching aspect. I just tried to get them in, let them play and see what they've got," McBroom said. "I wasn't putting in a lot of the terminology or plays or defense because I wanted to get to know the kids as much as I could.
"I wouldn't say it's been easy. We've had a rough patch, but the people I'm surrounded by have definitely helped me quite a bit because I'm learning this as I go."