News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

With any new program in sports, the predictability of how that team does is so wildly vague, expectations are usually tempered. 

From getting a home gymnasium ready and equipment secured, from getting coaches hired to recruiting players, to getting the team of strangers to mesh and prepare them for a long season, Montcalm Community College’s new basketball team, after a 40-year hiatus of any sports on the Sidney campus, was starting from scratch. 

Bumps, hard lessons and many failures were sure to come Head Coach Zach Ingles and his coaching staff’s way as the season began, and they did, but now that MCC’s season is complete, Ingles said his team can enjoy the success that was measured in more ways than its record. 

“It all started in camp,” Centurions Head Coach Zach Ingles said. “These guys worked hard every day, they showed up every morning, engaged with each other, worked the film room and in the weight room and were able to merge together. Kids from all walks of life managed to get together and make a team. You had a kid from Carson City getting along and playing well with a kid from Louisville, Kentucky. I mean, that was just pretty cool to watch.” 

The team included team leading scorer Taylen Carver, from Louisville, some local area talent, including Carson City big man Brayden Clark and Greenville’s Caleb Clements, and a threesome from Ingles’ father’s high school program at Big Rapids, brothers Mason and Dawson Dunn and Jack Ruggles.  

MCC even included a South American player, sophomore Geronimo Mozzi, from Villa Ramallo, Argentina, a guard who joined the team mid-season overcoming an injury.    

“After getting a month to know everyone, being around them on a daily basis, we really bonded together well,” said Mason Dunn, who matured through the season to become another reliable offensive weapon for the Centurions. 

The Centurions finished the season 12-17 overall and 6-8 in the Michigan Community College Athletics Association’s Northern division, good for fourth place out of eight teams. Though it was a losing record, Ingles pointed out the enormous challenge a first-year team has, and finishing where they did was outstanding. 

“We described ourselves as an expansion team,” he said, pointing out the complexities of each and every player experiencing things for the first time at the collegiate level, including playing with their own teammates. “But there was a togetherness about this team. And there were some really good things about them.” 

The Centurions started out on a three-game losing streak right out of the gate, including a heartbreaking 46-44 loss to Owens Community College in their third game of the season. MCC finally earned its first program victory with an 87-43 win over Washtenaw Community College in the next game.  

After starting 2-5, MCC went on a small winning streak, sweeping three home games — against Battle Ground Prep, Kuyper College and Community Christian (Michigan) — and then traveling to Florida and beating Pasco-Hernando State College for its fourth consecutive win. 

The team would hover around .500 for the next few games, getting into conference games, which was highlighted with an Jan. 11 upset win over Bay College, which was ranked in the top 25 nationally at the time. 

“For a month and a half, we were brilliant,” Ingles said.  

After a 73-63 win at home over North Central Michigan College, Feb. 1, the Centurions were looking good, set at 10-10 overall and 4-2 in the Northern division, however, back-to-back losses to nationally ranked Bay College and Northern division leader Mid Michigan College, followed by a 79-75 setback to Muskegon put the brakes on MCC’s momentum going into the last leg of the season. 

In the last five games of the season, the Centurions managed only two wins, letting two other games slip through their fingers, a 63-58 loss to North Central Michigan and a 50-48 loss at their home finale against Kirtland Community College.  

“We never should’ve lost to Kirtland or NCMC,” Mason said. “We could have easily taken care of those teams in those games, but we slipped up.” 

Despite all the hardships of a first-year program, Ingles helped guide the Centurions to a postseason appearance, ultimately bowing out in the quarterfinals of the Great Lakes District B Tournament against Muskegon Community College. 

Though the Centurions lost, 87-75, ending their season, Mason said he and his team learned a lot from that experience. 

“It was intense,” he said. “We knew we had to play every single play, and we knew going in it was going to be hard. But that was our goal the whole year, to make it to the playoffs, and we did.” 

As of now, Ingles and his coaching staff know of only one player who will not be returning to the team, that being Mozzi, who finished up his eligibility as a sophomore. Ingles is expecting a good number of his players to return for next season. 

“When the summer comes around, we may lose someone. We don’t know,” he said. “We don’t want that to be the case ever, but we are getting Team No. 2 ready and, on paper, with the pieces we are returning, we should be really good.” 

With almost all freshmen trailblazing through this season, the Centurions will have not only a sophomore-dominated team next year, but one with playoff experience already. 

“I can’t underline the fact enough that these kids stepped into college basketball for the first time and every game they came together,” Ingles said, pointing out Carver averaged around 21 points a game for the Centurions. “Next season, we will have sophomores teaching and leading our freshmen. We didn’t have that this year. We went in blind, and I’m really impressed with how they handled that.” 

Ingles also praised Mason Dunn, who he said towards the end of the season showed a glimpse of what his potential is. 

“He really stepped up those last three games,” Ingles said. “He ebbed and flowed throughout the season but suddenly he was scoring triple-doubles and double-doubles and playing very well at the end of the year.” 

Josiah DeMeester (Grandville, Mich.), a 6-foot, 9-inch-tall center, was another player Ingles was impressed with, as he, too, showed improvement throughout the season. 

“He really figured it out in the end,” Ingles said. “He has the world at his fingertips. He lost 25 pounds and he became a really good player. He will be a really good piece for someone after he’s done here.” 

Mason Dunn believes, by the end of the season, the entire team began showing its defensive prowess and began playing together much better.  

“We competed not to win but to get through the day at first,” he said. “At the end, though, we knew how good we could be if we competed. If we have everyone come back, we’re going to be better because we are going to take every game serious and not look down at any team. I think if we do that, we can be a top two or top three team and make the playoffs again.” 

Mason said he hasn’t really given much thought to the impact this year’s team has on MCC’s history, being the fact it was trailblazing through its inaugural season. 

“It is cool that we’re starting it up and all,” he said. “But really, we’re focused on our unfinished business.”