Heading into the 2022-2023 season, Fredericktown’s boys basketball team is bringing back some of its top players, and looks like a dangerous team in the Knox Morrow Conference.
The team has eight returning lettermen, including reigning First-Team All-Conference member Kaid Carpenter, and All-Conference Honorable Mention recipient Brady Lester. Both will be stepping into a leadership role as seniors and top players this season, and their play will be critical for the Freddies to be able to improve on their last campaign.
Last season, the Freddies went 6-6 in conference play and 12-13 overall last season, falling narrowly in a playoff matchup vs. the Utica Redskins.
Freddies coach Derek Dibbling has coached high school basketball for 17 years and has spent the last seven coaching the Freddies. From that experience, he knows better than to set concrete expectations for the new squad right out of the gate, instead focusing on the process and letting that take care of results,
“Our expectation is simply that guys compete every day," Dibbling said. "If we do that, the rest takes care of itself. We want guys we count on and trust. All games are big games for us ... the minute you look ahead is the minute you look back and regret. We have to stay focused on the task at hand.”
Dibbling plans to create a winning environment, establishing practices that will help the team have success in the longrun. The team’s motto for this season is “championship habits every day,” meaning that “what we do every day is much more important than what we do once in a while. We focus on the present ... one day at a time, one drill at a time, one rep at a time," Dibbling said.
The team plans to play unselfishly, utilizing ball movement and player movement away from the ball on offense.
“Our biggest strengths are our physical strength and team speed; our system is motion-oriented. It plays to our strengths and allows us to use our guys in many ways and plays to their versatility,” he said.
On defense, Dibbling plans to utilize the same strengths to be able to get stops and force turnovers,
“Our greatest strength defensively is our strength and physicality," Dibbling said.
Defensively, the team trusts its athletes to defend one-on-one but will mix up looks throughout the season,
“We primarily play man-to-man but will mix in zone when we think it provides us with an advantage,” Dibbling said. Dibbling mentioned communication as an important area that still needs improvement for the team to be able to consistently get stops in important moments.
On offense, Dibbling mentioned perimeter shooting as a potential weakness.
“Our biggest concern is finding guys that can give us consistent outside shooting,” he said.
Dibbling sees a great deal of potential for this year’s group but knows that their success will depend on the leadership and buy-in of some of their most senior players. Older stars on the team, including Carpenter and Lester, will have even bigger roles in the offense this season, but perhaps more important, they are tasked with leading by example for the younger players on team. If the team is able to put everything together, Dibbling can imagine this season being one to remember.
“We're counting on our seniors to step up and lead," he said. "It's something we really put a high value on. Their ability to lead might very well be one of the things that helps take this season from ordinary to extraordinary.”
The Freddies started their season with a loss to Northridge and play a few tuneups before they begin KMAC competition Dec. 2 vs. Cardington-Lincoln.
