New Rochelle Boys' Basketball Embarks on New Season

By Ian Sacks and Jack Clark

The New Rochelle High School boys’ basketball team lost all five starters from the end of last season. Despite the Huguenots’ lack of experience, they have a positive outlook for the season.

Head coach Rasaun Young, a New Rochelle alumnus, enters his third season at the helm of the program and believes the team’s success will be determined by how well it performs on the defensive side of the ball.

“We’re going to be a defensive team,” he said. “We’re going to need our defense to create our offense. Defensively, if we get down and really get dirty and work hard, we should be alright.”

New Rochelle will not have a go-to scorer, as the team has had in years past. Last year, Derek Dorn was the team’s best offensive threat. The year before, Joe Clarke powered the team’s offense. This year, however, the Huguenots will rely on a balanced scoring attack.

The one player to look out for this year will be senior guard Antoine Lewis. Lewis missed a significant portion of last season due to a broken kneecap.

“I’ve been hungry ever since,” he said. “I’m feeling good. Hopefully everything goes well.”

The Huguenots posted an 8-12 record last season, claiming the No. 9 seed in Section One’s class AA. In the first round of the playoffs, they defeated Mamaroneck to advance to the quarterfinals, where they matched up with rival Mount Vernon. The top-seeded Knights prevailed 46-40, as they went on to win their 13th sectional title in the last 15 years. The other two years (2005 and 2013), New Rochelle claimed the gold ball.

In 2013, New Rochelle and Mount Vernon faced each other in the Section One championship game, in what turned out to be a sensational game. New Rochelle won 61-60 on a 55-foot shot by Khalil Edney at the buzzer. This play reached No. 1 on ESPN’s “SportsCenter”’s Top 10 plays of the day from the wide world of sports. The game ended Mount Vernon’s run of seven straight sectional titles.

New Rochelle advanced all the way to the New York State class AA final, where t fell to Bishop Kearney from Section Five.

As the Huguenots know what it takes to win in Section One, they know that there are a lot of good teams to be on the lookout for this season.

“All of our games are going to be competitive this year,” Young said. “Scarsdale is going to be good; they’ve got about four guys returning this year. White Plains is going to be tough. Mamaroneck is very big; they’ve got a bunch of big football players, and they’ve got two very good guards. It’s not just Mount Vernon we gotta worry about; we gotta worry about the whole conference.”

New Rochelle begins the season Saturday on the road at Uniondale. The Huguenots play several non-conference games before beginning conference play Jan. 8, when they are scheduled to host White Plains.

The two showdowns with Mount Vernon are slated for Jan. 15 at New Rochelle and Feb. 5 at Mount Vernon in the regular-season finale.

Photo by Jack Clark