Indian River finished off quite an impressive season under the watchful eye of first-year head coach Phil Mead. But a winning record and second-place finish in the Henlopen South Conference was not enough to carry the Indians into the state tournament this year.
“I was very disappointed that we didn’t come up with the points,” said Mead, who has coached basketball at junior varsity and youth levels for years. “Things happened with other teams late in the season.”
Delaware teams are awarded bonus points for winning against teams with a seasonal record better than .500.
“Typically, a 12-9 record would generally get you in, but there were other schools with other schedules,” he said.
Teams such as Cape Henlopen and Polytech rounded out their seasons at 11-11, denying any bonus points to teams that managed to pull wins off against them earlier this year. In fact, Woodbridge and IR were the only two teams from the Henlopen South division that finished above .500. Woodbridge, which went undefeated in the South and 19-4 on the year, was the only team to advance from the Southern conference, capturing the seventh seed at states.
“The way it’s set up now,” Mead said, “it’s very difficult for teams in the South to advance to states. On a good year, we have two teams make it to states from the South. The way the North is set up, they play the generally weaker teams in our conference and improve on their record.”
This, in turn, is advantageous for other North teams that are facing conference rivals with .500-plus records. The tournament is locked into this point system for two-year cycles, so IR could face the same predicament next year, too, before any design change is made. There has been talk of, in upcoming years, merging the North and South schools with different flights, similar to the way the football schedule is arranged.
Rounding out the season, though, Mead said he was pleased with what his players brought to the hardwood.
“We knew what we had to do in the last four games to get in,” he said, “and they stepped up and did it. So it was disappointing for me to have to tell them we didn’t make it. I thought we improved as the season went, and we definitely won more games than people expected us to.
“The guys stayed together as a team nicely,” he said. “We never counted on one person to do it all. It seemed like every other night, somebody different would step up and come through on another game.”
He admitted it wasn’t always easy, filling the shoes of former head coach Pat Kelly.
“Our coaching styles are very different,” noted Mead.
Senior Jeremy Purnell, lead scorer on the team, enjoyed the last high school season of his career.
“We weren’t all playing together at first,” said the 6’6” center, “but we started coming together as a family.”
Purnell, who averaged 16.6 points per game, netting a total of 332 points on the season, is one of seven seniors leaving the team. Cory Myles, Sean Lewis, Nick Scheuerman, Jerrod Jarmon, Luke Wingate and Marlin Blue will also be retiring their time on the court as graduation nears.
Junior Tyree Oliver, who has played at the varsity level since freshman year, helped control the team this year, stepping up as a captain, and will return again next year with hopes of picking up where the Indians left off.
“It was easy once we all started working together as one,” he said. Oliver led the team in three-point shots, netting 25 this season, as the Indians’ starting point guard.
Justin Arlett, the only other junior, will be hitting the court again next year, as well. Sophomores Deshawn Godwin and Keion Sturgis helped anchor the starting lineup most of this season, draining a combined 486 points on the year. Sophomores Montre Andrews and Jack Cole also contributed their skill this year to help IR close out second in the South.
Purnell made first-team all-conference in the Henlopen South, and Oliver made honorable mention in the conference. Both plan on playing baseball this spring. Purnell hopes to try his skills at Catonsville after graduation. Oliver said he will pursue the AAU basketball league this summer, as well.
“We’re losing our post player, which is tough,” said Mead. “Next year, we’ll have to adjust our offense and defense. Our style of play is traditionally a running style; a transition game. Without Jeremy, we’ll have to work on rebounding and filling that void under the basket, but from a coaching standpoint, it’s manageable. We have a lot of good guys coming back.”