By: Randall Waszynski & Desirae Gooding
A banner displayed inside the gymnasium at Brentwood High School showcases the history of the school’s basketball team. Mike Almonacy, a senior last season and now playing for Stony Brook, surpassed the 1,380 point record set by former star player and current general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers Mitch Kupchak, and has left his mark on the school for decades to come.
“Being a part of that history,” Almonacy said, “that’s probably the greatest experience I’ve had at Brentwood.”
As Almonacy embarks on a fight to secure his place in the NCAA, as well as former teammate and fellow graduate Jamel Allen, the team will need to rework its game plan. As the star players pass through the gymnasium doors for a final time, Coach Anthony Jimenez is left to ponder what will become of his team.
“We’re going to be finding out quickly how people embrace their roles,” Jimenez said. “How we begin the season, we’ll see how quickly players pick things up. Obviously we’re a team that’s coming back relatively young, too.”
Although unsure of what to expect, Jimenez is confident that those who will play at the start of the season will be eager to uphold the team’s legacy. “They are hungry. They are determined,” he said, “It’s a very prideful program, and they want the opportunity to win consistently – get back into the playoffs and get back into a championship situation.”
Annual try-outs for the team are approaching, with six out of the seven returning players standing out as seniors. With players from last year graduating, the Brentwood Indians are most definitely faced with a squad of players with little to no playoff experience on the varsity scene.
“It’s definitely going to be a different environment,” David Berger, the team’s assistant coach and dean of students at Brentwood Sonderling High School, said. “Having Mike and Jamel graduate is going to be a big hit for us in terms of senior leadership.”
The incoming younger platoon has the school’s basketball history to uphold, as the team has been home to greats, like Almonacy, Allen and other recent mentionable players who have led the team, to only two Section 11 AA-1 losses in the last four seasons. (This does not include interleague, playoff and tournament matchups.) The team earned the title of Class A Long Island Champions back-to-back seasons in this era.
“The transition this year is us falling into our own positions and playing our own games, where we can not only fill in for what they did or at least replace but more like turn it into a different game and not trying so hard to be like them but play our own games to be successful,” senior Aaron Jenkins, who plays small forward for Brentwood, said.
Jenkins hopes to start at the three spot this season, and his brother Josh, a junior who backed up Almonacy at point guard last season, looks to be starting this season as well.
“I hope that we can pick up the pace and learn to take on the tasks that the leaders had last year,” Josh Jenkins said. “On and off the court, we have a good rapport with pretty much everyone on the squad, and I think this year, we’ll get along pretty fine.”
Maintaining team chemistry that Almonacy and Allen facilitated last season among teammates and coaches is vital for the team to succeed. “We come off like a family so that we can excel at the best pace possible to go as far as we can in order for us to do exactly what we’ve been doing the past couple years,” Aaron said. “And that’s nothing short of championships and league championships.”
Randall Waszynski 