by Alan Stein
21. November 2008 05:36
The 2008-2009 high school season will mark my 6th year as the head strength & conditioning coach for Coach Vetter’s legendary program. Montrose has produced two NBA players (Linas Kleiza of the Denver Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder) as well as countless Division I college players (such as Greivis Vasquez of Maryland, Uche Echefu of Florida State, and Taishi Ito of Portland).
This year’s team has the potential to be as good as any of the Montrose teams I have been a part of. We have tremendous talent, depth at each position, an impressive collective work ethic, and remarkable team chemistry. We also have a nice balance of veterans and young players as well as several new faces that transferred in to give us some new blood. We have very high expectations for this group and it should be an exciting season.
While many programs have their site set each year on winning a state or conference championship, our goal each year at Montrose is to win a National Championship. That’s what we work for all year long. In this year’s pre-season national polls, ESPN has us ranked 19th in the country and USA Today has us ranked 10th. In the middle of December we will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii to play in the 25th anniversary of the very prestigious Iolani Classic Basketball Tournament which will feature several nationally ranked programs (like Oak Hill Academy and DeMatha). Whoever comes out of that tournament hoisting the championship trophy will probably be top 5 in the nation.
While every player on our team is talented, athletic, and plays an important role, there are a few young men worthy of mentioning because of their notoriety. We actually have 4 players ranked in the top 50 in the nation in their respective class (according to the player rankings on ESPN). We are lead by two Villanova bound seniors; 6’10” Center Mouphtaou Yarou (ranked #27) and 6’8” Forward Isaiah Armwood (ranked #35). Both of these young men will be stars for Coach Jay Wright and have the potential to play in the NBA if they keep working hard. Two new additions to the team are 6’4” Guard Terrence Ross (ranked #43 in 2010 class) and 6’4” Guard Justin Anderson (ranked as one of the top 10 freshman in the nation). T-Ross and JA are probably our two most athletic players; excellent slashers who get to the rim at will. One other player of mention is T. Jordan Omogbehin, a 7’2”, 280-pound sophomore from Nigeria. While he still has a ways to go, he gets better every day and could end up being a phenomenal big man at both the college and pro level. The improvement he has made since arriving at Montrose a year ago is staggering.
Our quest for a national title begins on December 2nd. For a full schedule, please visit www.MontroseBasketball.com.
If you would like to contact me about this blog or have questions about the Montrose Basketball program, please email me atAlan@StrongerTeam.com. I will respond as quickly as possible!
Train hard. Train smart.
Alan Stein, CCS, CSCS