Beavers looking forward to more practice time

By Chris Villani

The Blackstone Valley Tech boys’ basketball team faced a number of challenges through the first part of the 2024-2025 season, with a new coaching staff forced to navigate a challenging schedule with very little practice time.

First-year head coach Rich Cormier said he is excited just to get the chance to work with his guys more often outside of a game situation.

“I do think we are seeing improvement,” Cormier said. “I told the team this: I am really looking forward to having a full week of practice at the beginning of January. It’s the longest stretch of practice we will have the entire season.”

BVT did not have much time to get ready at the beginning of the year. A late Thanksgiving meant the winter season started later than normal and the Beavers were rushed into games relatively quickly. Cormier said the team is still trying to figure out its rotation and quite a few guys are seeing floor time.

“We don’t have a ton of experience in terms of guys who have played significant varsity minutes,” Cormier said. “But the leadership has been really good.”

Senior guard Charbel Jebara and senior forward Eric Deppe are Valley Tech’s captains this winter.

“They do a great job setting the tone day in and day out at practice,” Cormier said. “They kept the team positive through the tough stretch to open the season.”

Two other seniors, Alex Burgos and Nick Whitlock, also returned this year after playing solid minutes in the past.

“They have both done a nice job on the court steadying the ship at various points,” Cormier said.

With some extra time to sharpen their skills in practice, Cormier said the team is looking to improve its execution on both ends of the floor. Having more time to review game film and see what is and isn’t working can only help the cause, he added.

“I believe we had only five practices before our first game,” Cormier said. “We hit that first game and we had only scratched the surface on what we were trying to accomplish.”

Heading into 2025, Cormier said his team has more direction and, perhaps most importantly, more practice time to implement that vision.

“We have a nice sample size of what we have done to this point,” he said. “We can see what we are doing well and where we need to improve in order to hit the new year running.”