KP Basketball: Seniors A Key Ingredient To Success On The Court

It was a magical run through the tournament, but unfortunately, it ended with an overtime loss to Hopkinton in the Division 2 South Championship game.

Although disappointing, it will be a season that lasts forever in King Philip lore, especially for the Warrior seniors.

Harry Washington, Alec May, Joey Akrouche, Tim Sheehan and Connor Layman had seen some of the worst records in King Philip history. The Warriors basketball team at one point had gone 40 games without a win. Then had a two-win season and a six-win campaign before the 2010-11 record tying season.

While many may see this as junior forward Jake Layman’s team, the coach and the players said that was the furthest from the truth.

The KP team was a machine with many intricate pieces. All those pieces needed to be working to perfection if things were going to go their way. This year’s 17 wins were because the machine worked as one.

Washington, the Warriors point guard, was one of KP's major pieces. Prior to his senior season, he was the team’s back-up two guard, but he wanted something total different in his final year on the court.

“Harry is a tremendous leader,” Coach Sean McInnis said. “During the offseason he dedicated himself to the fullest. He wanted nothing more than to be the team’s point guard and, believe me, there are a lot of talented young men behind him on the depth chart.”

Another self motivator was Tim Sheehan, who really wanted to be part of the starting rotation, so he worked on his game extensively.

“Tim wanted to be part of this rotation, not just a member of the team,” the coach said. “He really excelled and lifted his game to the next level when Alec (May) went down.”

May was the team’s rebounder and leader. According to the coach, his performance was surprising, as he was close to putting up a double-double every game before he went down for the later part of the season.

“Alec was a tremendous football player that gave it his all and tranferred his talents to the basketball court,” McInnis said. “When he got hurt in the second Mansfield game, he couldn’t contribute on the court, so he took on a new role on the sidelines.”

Akrouche was playing on the varsity team for the first time, and was involved in some big plays for the Warriors down the stretch.

“You’d never know that Joey was a first-year player for us. He came off the bench with some clutch shooting and great defensive play,” the coach said.

The final senior on the Warrior squad was Connor Layman.  In addition to knocking down some big three-point shots for the Warriors during the magical run, it was Layman who got the team moving in the right direction game in and game out.

“Connor got us into our offense,” McInnis said. “He also took on the role as the older brother to everyone on the team, not just Jake.”

 While these athletes will definitely be missed when the Warriors take to the court next winter, there are returning players who are looking to bring KP back to the title contest.

Coming back next season will be John Mullane, Christian Fair, Mike Schmidt, Sam McDonald, Dever Carrison and Jared O’Connor.  The coach said he is expecting big things from these players next year, as each of these players are athletes who would play some big minutes for any other team.