UPDATE: The season ended for the Owego Team on Saturday, when they were defeated by Lowville in the Regionals held at the Onondaga Community College. Congrats to the Section IV champs on a great season!
ORIGINAL STORY:
The Owego Varsity Boys Basketball team brought home a sweet victory on Saturday, March 2 at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. Owego claimed the Section IV, Class B title.
The Indians defeated Seton Catholic Central High School 54-51 for their first Sectional title since 2006. The Saints were the defending champions.
OFA Boys Varsity Basketball Coach, Chris Evans, shared, “The victory over Seton for the Sectional Title is a memory maker. From the moment the final buzzer sounded to the Owego Fire Department serenading us through the village will be recalled for years to come.”
The memories, Evans hinted, will last a lifetime, and added, “Our players will be sharing this story with their grandchildren.”
A 1983 Owego Free Academy graduate, Evans is an English teacher at the high school. In his tenth season coaching varsity basketball, Evans owns a resume filled with over 30 years of coaching experience.
A distinctive quality about the entire team, Evans said, is that a number of the players have been playing together since the third or fourth grade. Six seniors are set to graduate this year.
He remarked, “They played on travel and AAU teams over the years, and that has helped create an unbreakable bond.”
OFA will take that team chemistry to Syracuse on March 9.
“We play Lowville on Saturday (March 9),” Evans said, adding, “I watched them (Lowville) play at the Carrier Dome on Sunday (March 3). Lowville is well-coached, and they all seem to know how to play by moving the ball, and also shoot extremely well.”
Evans sensed chemistry amongst the Lowville players as well, and said, “It will be a challenge for our guys to defend them the way we’ve defended the last two or three games.”
Evans explained that pre-game preparation entails watching hours of films to writing down detailed scouting reports, along with deciding where to put players at game time.
“The challenge of coaching,” Evans said, “is to not over-coach.”
Evans further explained that there is a fine line between preparing and over-preparing, and similarly for a player, over thinking can get in the way of instinct during the game.
Owego plays Lowville at noon on Saturday, March 9 at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena in Syracuse.
According to Syracuse.com, Lowville’s Section III, Class B win over General Brown on March 3 was their first sectional championship in 55 years.
Evans also shared that the Owego community has always been supportive of its young people, whether their interests are in music, art, sports or other talents.
He said, “Owego is fiercely loyal, and that win on Saturday over Seton was, hopefully, a unifying and inspiring moment for everyone.”
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