RallyNorth.net

Falcons focusing on breakthrough season

Monday, December, 10 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

Danvers girls basketball coach Pat Veilluex looks over his roster and likes the talent, experience and leadership the Falcons will feature this winter.

Then, he peers at his team's schedule and wonders where the wins will come from.

Veilleux is not a pessimist. He likes to look at things realistically, and the second-year coach knows that the improvements Danvers made last season can only help if it continues to build on those strides this year.

"It's a very tough league. We've got Peabody jumping in (to the Northeastern Conference) and in our division we have Winthrop and Swampscott, which are two of the top programs," Veilluex said. "I don't know if we can play with them to be honest."

Danvers has four returning starters, three experienced bench players and a slew of young talent that has moved up through the program. But two games apiece against Winthrop and Swampscott mean the Falcons will be battling to breakthrough in the NEC South again this year.

The Falcons finished 9-5 in their conference a year ago and Veilleux's cautious approach | coupled with the extra motivation that naturally comes from playing established programs like Winthrop and Swampscott | has the Danvers players feeling like this is the year to make a move up the standings.

"We want to surprise a couple teams. I don't think anyone is expecting us to be any better than last year," senior captain Ashley Burnham said. "We have more depth this year and coach harps on that. It's not to say we didn't have a good senior class last year, but I think we're a little stronger and more experienced. We're looking to knock off the good teams, and Winthrop and Swampscott are the cream of the crop."

Burnham joins classmates Cate DiNitto and Danielle Sherry as captains, and junior Erica Veilleux is the fourth returning starter. Senior slasher Stephanie Costas and juniors Bailey Potter and Taylor Cross add to a strong Falcons' nucleus.

Danvers will also get a boost from senior forward Casey King, who is returning to the court this season after sitting out a year to rehabilitate a torn ACL. King, the NEC South MVP in girls soccer, will bring athleticism and toughness underneath the basket for the Falcons.

Like so many other teams in the area, Danvers is loaded with guards. A lack of height was a problem for them last year, but the Falcons may have an answer this season in freshman 6-footer Kellie Macdonald.

It seems Danvers has all the pieces to compete with Winthrop and Swampscott. The Falcons will find out where they stand very early as they play both the Vikings and the Big Blue in the first week of the season.

"It's a matter of chemistry," Veilleux said. "We have depth, and that's a nice little security blanket. I know I can check someone into the game and they'll produce. We really need to get more people involved and we're hopeful we can do that this year."

Sherry, a standout guard who has been a fixture in the Danvers lineup for three years, is one of the premier scorers in the league. It's likely that she'll reach the 1,000-point mark this season, but Veilleux hopes some other players will carry more of the offensive load this year. "It's awesome to know that we have someone to get us out of a pinch. She passes the ball well and makes good plays. She's more than a scorer. She gives us options in the offense," DiNitto said about Sherry. "She makes the offense flow together so much better. If she took every shot it would be chaos on the court. Everyone would be scrambling and we wouldn't be in position, but she calls the plays and makes the best pass."

Sherry may still be setting her teammates up on occasion, but one of the first moves Veilleux made when he took over as head coach was to take her off the ball.

"My oldest daughter played with Danielle for two years (before I took over) and I saw that she had to work so hard. Danielle had to bring it up and face pressure to score. She wasn't getting a whole lot of help," Veilleux said. "I don't think they had anyone else to bring it up. When we moved her to the shooting guard she had more freedom to go to other spots and it will help her in college where she could play the point and the shooting guard. Now, during games she's not going to be totally exhausted in the last five minutes of a game."

Erica Veilleux took over the majority of the ballhandling last season and played the point well enough to make it a permanent change.

Now, instead of knowing exactly where Sherry will be before the ball is even in play, defenses have to find her. Sherry has seen all the gimmick defenses in the past and it's likely she'll see more this season. She's confident that her teammates will take the pressure off this season.

"Sometimes I see a box-and-one and I get double-teammed a lot," Sherry said. "I try to get open or I depend on my team to help me out."

Winthrop has a strong starting five and Swampscott brings back two of the conference's best players in Allie Beaulieu and Tara Nimkar, but it's unlikely that either team will be able to match Danvers' depth.

As long as that depth produces the Falcons have a chance to make a move in the NEC.

"I think we're going to do really well in the conference. Swampscott and Winthrop are our hardest games, but we have good speed and we're a smart team," DiNitto said. "We have more depth on the bench and we'll rely on the bench to get in there and continue what everyone else is doing. The tempo will stay the same no matter who's out there."