Shady Side Academy boys look to overcome early-season injuries as section play begins

By: Antonio Rossetti
Saturday, December 14, 2024 | 11:01 AM

Shady Side Academy boys basketball started 2-4 last season, but rose up and finished 18-9 with an 11-2 conference record, earning the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. This season, the Bulldogs started 2-2 and want to push their way toward similar success.

To get there, they will have to overcome some injuries.

Coach Dan Vadnais said senior Ben Michaels got off to a strong start in his first three games but suffered an ankle sprain and will miss time. Senior Seamus Riordan missed the first four games but will return soon.

“That’s two of our key bigger players that we were going to utilize, so we really haven’t seen it come into play yet,” Vadnais said. “I’m hopeful as the year goes on, we can start to change up our defense from time to time and give teams different looks just by utilizing our length and size, but we first have to get healthy so that we have everyone in the gym so we can practice and kind of implement more things.”

As the Bulldogs strive to get full strength, 6-foot-4 junior Cam Mallory and 6-3 senior Ryan Frohlich have stepped up to help lead the team. Mallory also is Shady Side’s starting quarterback.

“They’ve played well,” Vadnais said. “They’ve played really hard. We’re trying to find ways to get Ryan open on the perimeter as much as possible. Cam (on Dec. 10), although we lost, he was able to attack the guy guarding him from the foul line in or just straight post up, which has been a positive. I want to get him the ball more inside. He definitely has the ability to shoot from the perimeter, but I think he can really utilize his footwork and touch inside if we can get him the ball more often.”

He added that junior guard Paul Benec and junior guard/forward Mark Bence have done an excellent job early on. Benec started all four games and Bence started against Avonworth.

Vadnais likes what he has seen out of the players who have helped fill the roles as they battle injuries.

“When we’ve gone to guys, they’ve stepped in and done a nice job, and they’re having to play roles that we didn’t necessarily expect,” Vadnais said. “We’re just trying to, as carefully as possible, give guys experience coming off the bench and to put them in position to be successful, and not just going to get frustrated with how they’re playing.”

Vadnais mentioned how difficult their nonsection schedule has been in his tenure. He wants a positive team mindset despite early adversity with injuries.

“This group’s got a lot of potential. … Right now with our injuries, I just want to keep guys positive seeing the end, not forgetting what we’re really playing for in the end and getting to section play,” Vadnais said. “We can’t get too frustrated right now with the injuries and the teams we’re playing where we will have some losses, but that’s part of the process.

“We’re trying to get that consistency on both offense and defense, where we can get good, high percentage shots against better teams or any team. We consistently want to play defense and get stops because the games that we’ve had trouble, we’ve struggled on offense, which has led to transition for Knoch and Avonworth, and we just end up shooting ourselves in the foot in small intervals of time.”

Vadnais wants the Bulldogs to gain consistency and push through the challenging schedule.

“We have to continue to work and try to, as coaches, to find things that will help the team be successful, either as individuals or as a whole team,” Vadnais said. “For players, we need them to continue to buy in and try to do their best to accomplish what we’re asking out of them.”

Tags: Shady Side Academy