City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Things have essentially come full circle for Chris Cowles in his basketball career.

After starting his playing career as a ninth grader at West Chester East, then being redistricted to Bayard Rustin upon its opening in 2006, Cowles graduated from the Golden Knights’ program in 2009 and played at McDaniel College in Maryland.

As a post-graduate, he spent a season on the Damien Blair's West Chester University staff, and two after that as an assistant to Jason Ritter at Downingtown West.

Now, he’s back where he started, entering his second season as a head coach at -- you guessed it -- West Chester East, and there’s reason for some excitement in year two for a program that has struggled in recent years.

Entering the 2016-17 season, the Vikings are starting to get more comfortable with their new head coach.

“In the second year with Coach Cowles, I feel good,” said senior Zae Murrey, an all-league selection last year. “He trains me every day, he’s got me going and going and making my game better...he’s just a good coach.”

In Cowles’ inaugural campaign, the Vikings earned a record of 11-11, and fell just shy of a district playoff bid. However, after going just 7-16 and mustering one measly conference win the year before, 2015-16 was certainly a step in the right direction.

With only three returning players from last season’s varsity squad, the Vikings are going to need the leadership of those returnees in order to continue on an upward trajectory.

Those seniors, all of which are multi-sport athletes, include Murrey, a 6-foot-3 wing who also plays football; 5-foot-8 point guard Reggie Loper, a football player; and 6-foot-5 forward J.D. Carroll, a football player and future Michigan Wolverines lacrosse player who will miss a portion of the upcoming basketball season with a torn meniscus.

While their contributions will be the key to a successful season, Cowles has made it clear that he wants to see more guys than just his seniors be able to step up and make plays.

“We want everyone to be confident, we want everyone to be able to have the green light, so to speak, to use the skills we work on every day“ he said. “Zae’s gonna have to carry the scoring load, J.D. is going to be a good leader for us, but it could be a different guy any night.”

With Murrey in particular, Cowles recognizes a higher level of commitment this offseason that is crucial in developing him into the leadership role he needs to fill.

“First of all, he’s a great kid, and he’s naturally unselfish,” Cowles said of Murrey. “Going into last year, I don’t think he had as much trust in myself and our coaching staff, so...he didn’t improve as much as he would have. This offseason, not only is he committed, but he’s worked out individually with our staff to get his jump shot better, his shot preparation better, all of that stuff.”

As far of the majority portion of the roster -- the inexperienced players -- Cowles has been impressed by his younger players’ dedication and what they’ve brought to offseason practices.

“I think just in general our freshman and sophomore class, they’ve made themselves deeper by working hard,” he said. “We have some good players coming up, so just in general I’ve been happy with them and their work ethic, coming to workouts and getting better.”

“I can’t really single out one guy, because there’s a lot of them,” he added. “There’s a lot of them that have gotten better, and there’s a lof them that can contribute for us this year.”  

Clearly, Cowles believes he has the pieces to take another step in the direction of a district bid in class 5A, but is first emphasizing the much smaller, yet just as important steps it takes to reach that point.

Having come so close to that district playoff bracket a year ago, it may be in the back of his mind, but it’s definitely not coming out of his mouth with this year’s team.

“Our motto is ‘max out,' maximize your ability, it’s a very short-term type of thing,” Cowles said. “This possession in practice, this inbound play we’re defending, this play of the game offensively and defensively, so (districts) is the end goal obviously, but I don’t want to set goals like that as much as maximizing what we’ve got in this moment, and then all of that will take care of itself.”

“We don’t even talk about it,” he added. “If we max out, that will take care of itself.”