The boys basketball team this season is looking to surprise many doubters. The team’s three leading scorers from last year have all graduated and two of them are currently playing college basketball. 

Although the team lost a lot, Coach Reel is really excited about the group that is coming back this year and likes their style of play. “Although we lost a lot of our scoring from last year, we are really excited about the group we have coming back.  We have tough guys and guys who play hard every time they step on the floor.  Practice has been extremely competitive so far and we are looking forward to that continuing throughout the season and carrying over that high compete level into games.” This will be Coach Reel’s 6th year as the head coach where he has a very respectable record of 78-46. When Reel arrived, the program had a series of difficult years, but he has turned the tides and brought respect back to the Madison basketball program, who are now one of the best teams in the division. 

Madison does have a good senior class who has varsity experience and that’s hungry to prove doubters wrong. The team’s captains this year are Sean Mariani and Jared Barnes. Mariani was a starter last year; he had a good year, specializing in defense, he produced a lot of charging fouls. Barnes was the sixth man last year where he made the best out of the opportunity and made some nice plays for the Dodgers. 

The Dodgers open up with Morris Catholic to start off the year; they dropped two games against them last year. But it’s a different season with a new group. We asked Sean about some adjustments they are making this year and he’s confident in their game plan. “As far as adjustments go, we lose a couple people, so we are going to be a little different. As far as a team though, we know what they are going to do to try to beat us and we are going to be ready for them.” 

For some of the seniors, this could be their last season of team basketball. When asked what they are going to do to make it count Sean said, “I think that as a whole we are pushing each other as hard as we can in practice. Last year we didn’t end the way we wanted to, we wanted to win the section and go farther in counties. So we are working even harder now to achieve those goals.”

      Of course every high school team every year is going to be different, Madison had some losses but captain Jared Barnes says they made the team a more team centered offense. “You know last year our offense was around our three best scorers. This year is more team centered offense. The focus this year is not on each other’s scoring but more about making other people better.” On any team when you are growing up, you always dream about being a captain. This year the team had voted Barnes as a team captain. Barnes said it really means a lot to him especially after playing with his teammates since he was little. “You kind of always dream of being in a position where you can kind of lead a team.” 

Madison this year has a tough schedule but they feel confident in the team they have and are ready to play. The teams in Madison’s conference are Hanover Park, Morris Catholic, Mountain Lakes, Parsippany Hills, and newly added Pequannock. Morris Catholic and Pequannock will surely be a great challenge as they gave the Dodgers some problems last year, but as Barnes stated this team won’t back down from anybody. The team is excited and are ready to prove the doubters wrong this year and the goal as always is to win a state championship. 

You can find their schedule at https://madisondodgers.rschoolteams.com/page/2932 and stream their games on the NFHS network.

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