Maintaining a positive attitude is part and parcel of the mosaic in terms of both the philosophy and daily approach of Montclair High basketball coach Cecil Stinson, who has guided the Mounties to winning seasons in each of his first four seasons at the helm, all of which have resulted in above .500 winning campaigns.
Maintaining those winning ways could be somewhat of a challenge next winter if only because his team graduated three key starters, including the top two scorers who combined to average more than 30 points per game in leading the team to a solid 19-10 record in a season that ended in a highly competitive 56-51 loss to longtime neighboring rival East Orange Campus in the NJSIAA North 1, Group 4 state sectional semifinals before a packed house of enthusiastic fans in the Mounties gymnasium off Midland Avenue.
Now, as he looks forward to his fifth season at the helm, the former Mountie standout player is not going to let anything hold back a workmanlike approach in the valuable time period available in July when all high school teams around the state put in the bulk of their summertime work together.
MHS was fully immersed into its summertime workload as the final week of June got underway, and Stinson is ready to keep his fairly youthful and aspiring roster as active as possible even with some of his student-athletes trying to balance multiple summertime sports commitments, including with football and baseball.
“The optimism is always there and the work is the work,” said the Mounties’ head hoops honcho. “We’ve started our summer schedule of two games per week in both the Bloomfield (High School) Summer League and Bloomfield College League, just like last year.
“We usually have our returning varsity players in the league at Bloomfield College and our JV players are generally in the league over at Bloomfield High School, while that can fluctuate depending on what players are available on a given night.
“It is definitely a juggling act, but our kids understand what we’re trying to accomplish during this valuable time together during the summer, and they have a good attitude in terms of working together to make this a positive experience for all of us.”
Stinson said it is hoped that there will be 15 JV players and 13 freshmen from this past winter involved at different times for games and other work together this summer, while there are seven or eight returnees from last season’s varsity with the graduation of five seniors in June, highlighted by the departure of two backcourt aces in 6-foot-4 Mason Determann (team-leading 15.6 points per game last season while earning all-conference honors) and 5-11 jumping jack La’Mear Singletary (15.0 ppg). Also graduating was valuable 6-5 forward Mez Okaro (6.6 ppg, 7.3 rebounds per game) who was the team’s most prolific force in grabbing caroms off the boards.
Determann, one of the most complete players in Essex County, will next play at The College of New Jersey in the top-notch Division III New Jersey Athletic Conference, while Singletary has still not made his decision of whether or not he may walk on at Virginia State where he plans to attend this fall.
The key returnees are led by an all-around contributor in sturdy 6-3 rising senior Kody Nesbitt (10.1 ppg, 7 rpg, 3.5 assists per game), who is also a valuable member of the high school’s baseball team, 5-11 senior Samaad Jiles (5.9 ppg), who is a superb defender and standout wide receiver and defensive back on the Mounties football team, and 6-foot junior Josiah Brown (6.9 ppg), who is a talented, up-and-coming underclassmen who saw significant action as a sophomore last winter with the varsity after overcoming a back ailment that slowed him early on in the season.
