Full Court Press

A New Outlook and Relentless Defense Combine for a 20-Win Season

By Chris Adams, Director of Communications and Marketing

During a practice in early December, Head Coach Chris Kelleher realized the 2024 Cougars had the potential for a special season. He and Assistant Coach Jeff Good had just taught the team the full-court press, and the results were immediately apparent. “We couldn’t break our own defense, even in practice,” he recalled. By late February, the Cougars had ridden that relentless mindset to a twenty-win season. The closest margin of victory was a seven-point win over Fessenden.

The 2022-23 season was Coach Kelleher’s first at the helm of Cougar basketball. That varsity team had won seven games, but all of the starters had graduated, except one—Mikey Mitchell ’24. As the new season began, expectations for the 2023-24 season were unclear; the roster included several boys new to Cardigan—brothers London and Lyric Raysor ’25, Markus Jones ’25, and Ethan Okafor ’25—and one, Colton Boorda ’25, was also new to organized basketball.

Coach Kelleher credits all of the boys for the dedication and teamwork that led to their outstanding record. He also celebrates their willingness to “help the other fella” as they raised more than $2,500 to support a Special Olympics basketball team from Laconia, New Hampshire.

On the first day of practice, Coach Kelleher gathered all the basketball players from all four teams to set expectations and begin building a program culture. He began by stressing the importance of schoolwork. “Being a student-athlete means you are a student first,” he recalled telling them. “And players who do well in class also tend to do well on the floor.” Next, in order to fertilize camaraderie among and support for all of the teams in the program, he challenged all of the boys to attend the other teams’ games and cheer on their fellow Cougars when their schedules allowed.

Within the varsity squad, Coach Kelleher credits Mikey Mitchell—who was selected to be captain—with setting a tone that encouraged the team to gel quickly. “Mikey is a presence on the floor, period,” Coach said. “But he is also a calming force, and he did a great job pulling in our new guys and getting them to buy into the way we do things at Cardigan.”

By midseason, all of the boys on the varsity roster were working hard toward a shared goal. The reserve players continued to improve and were pushing the starting players for more minutes, which in turn motivated those players to keep improving. The full-court press was also fueling an explosive offense.

Then, during a February home game against Eaglebrook, Coach Kelleher felt enthusiasm for the program spread across campus. During halftime, the team was gathered in the stairwell adjacent to Marrion Gym, when their pep talk was interrupted by boisterous noise from the full “Cougar Corner” of the stands. It only grew louder when the team emerged for the second half. “That was some awesome energy,” Kelleher remembered.

The season, however, wasn’t without adversity. In the last weeks of February, Mikey Mitchell went down with an injury, and the team had to play their remaining games with their captain cheering from the bench. So far, the team had not lost a game, but that wasn’t discussed, at least not openly. 

On the last day of the regular season, the team played at New Hampton and struggled at first to maintain momentum. It was then, during halftime, that the players spoke of their undefeated season for the first time, acknowledging the hard work they had all contributed. “That was the first time I heard them use that word, and I know it was the first time I used it,” said Coach Kelleher. “But it seemed to work because they went out and won the second half and the game.”

Several players from the team will return next year, and they will certainly be joined by some new boys. But Coach Kelleher says he isn’t thinking about the expectations for wins and losses; instead he’s thinking about how well the returning boys can pull in the new boys and get them to believe in the process. “If they can do that,” he said. “Then I’ll know we are starting to build something.”