Toms River High School South’s boys’ basketball team will call on defense this season.
Coach Curt DeFillippo said this years’ team will focus on defense.
“We are going to play good quality team defense. This team will look to push the ball a little bit. We want to use our speed and our guards. We will definitely be a more guard oriented team this year,” DeFillippo said.
Guard play will also be utilized.
“We are young and somewhat inexperienced. We have a lot of guards on this team and hopefully we are going to be able to take advantage of that,” DeFillippo said.
A year ago, Toms River South finished 3-18 overall and 3-12 in the Shore Conference Class A South Division.
Juniors small forward Rob Marro and point guard Jalen Folsom are expected to lead this team. They have been named captains along with junior guard Nick Luongo.
Luongo and Folsom will interchange at the point guard position throughout the season.
Marro is a small forward who can shoot and get to the rim. DeFillippo said he is a natural scorer.
In the 2017-18 season, Marro averaged 5.3 points per game, while Folsom finished with 8.8 points per game.
“Those three guys are our solid core of what we are trying to do here. They will need to step up their game and take on more responsibility for this year,” DeFillippo said.
Luongo has impressed DeFillippo with working on his game.
“Through our summer workouts, fall and preseason he has really improved. Based on what he has done so far, he might be our leading scorer this season. He is kid no one really knows about because he did not play that many varsity minutes last year,” DeFillippo said.
He said he is still playing with the lineup to see where his team can use different players.
“We might be starting three juniors and two sophomores this year. We are going to be young still for this season. We are a junior and sophomore laden team,” DeFillippo said.
DeFillippo said he excited to get the season rolling.
“I am fired up. I am excited to see the surprise this season. I do not think people are going to expect anything out of us. I think we will turn some heads,” DeFillippo said.
