TEAM PREVIEW: Brown City Green Devils
Brown City Head Coach Anthony Troshak thinks this years squad just might have what it takes to hold on to the Greater Thumb Conference’s East Division title for one more year. Sure, the storied programs of Marlette, Harbor Beach, Sandusky and Ubly will do all they can to prevent it. But with a talented senior class and well-rounded group of underclassmen, the Green Devils like their odds of a repeat.
“This league will be very competitive. Marlette brings back a solid core and Harbor Beach has great group of athletes. Ubly will be quick and shoot the ball well,” Troshak said. “Sandusky will have some nice players inside and will be very balanced. Capac is new to our league but will showcase one of the best players in our area – Trevor Boers.”
One of the people planning to keep Brown City at the top is Anthony Geiger (2019), a 6’4 forward who is hot off a junior season where he earned All-State honors by averaging 16.8 PPG, 11.5 RPG and 3.1 APG. He also gets it done off the court, boasting a 4.07 GPA in the classroom. It’s those numbers that caught the eyes of some Division 3 and JUCO coaches this past year.
Geiger will suit up alongside classmates Sebastian Blevins, Ben Garcia and Austin Cover for one last season in green and white.
“We will have to bring it every night. Our defense will have to travel. Offensively, we’ll have to take care of the ball and focus on good shot selection,” Troshak said. “Every day we want to focus on getting better. Every single day, we want to compete.”
In order to keep their GTE crown, the Green Devills will have to find a way to replace the production of 2018 graduate and starters Calvin Cook, Jared McPhail and Matt Calabro. Cook, now playing at Northwood University, led Brown City’s offense a year ago with his 17.4 PPG while hauling in 7.4 RPG. He too was named to the Class C All-State Team. McPhail averaged 6.4 PPG and 2.2 APG while finishing the year 33% from the three-point line.
Troshak has hopes that juniors Matt Daws, David Halbert, Daniel Patrias, Devin WIlliamson, Sheldon Shavers and sophomore standout Kilian Pangerl will help make the transition into 2019 a smooth one. But with some tough tests early on in Brown City’s schedule, Troshak’s underclassmen might have to do a bit of learning on the fly.
“We know we are going to have to get it done with defense and rebounding,” Troshak said. “We play some great competition to start the year that will really test us. We want to get better as the year goes on and, hopefully, we can hit our stride come January, February and into March.”
BREAKDOWN
TEAM: Brown City Green Devils
CONFERENCE: Greater Thumb Conferece – East Division
COACH: Anthony Troshak (5th season)
CAREER RECORD: 58-89
2017-18 RECORD: 8-2 Conferece (1st) , 13-7 Overall
2017-18 POSTSEASON FINISH: District Quarterfinal loss to Capac, 44-29
DATES TO REMEMBER: 11/28 vs. Almont, 12/5 vs. Yale, 12/21 at Harbor Beach, 1/18 vs. Marlette, 1/30 at Caro, 2/1 vs. Harbor Beach, 2/20 at Marlette.