Trinity boys ahead of schedule
The Pioneers bid farewell to the 2022-’23 Gatorade New Hampshire High School basketball player of the year, Tyler Bike, who transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy, as well as his father, Keith, who coached the Pioneers to four years of marked success, including the 2022 Division-I state championship
MANCHESTER, NH – The Trinity High School boys basketball team entered this season with some holes to fill.
The Pioneers bid farewell to the 2022-’23 Gatorade New Hampshire High School basketball player of the year, Tyler Bike, who transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy, as well as his father, Keith, who coached the Pioneers to four years of marked success, including the 2022 Division-I state championship.
In stepped Ray Farmer, who had some experience coaching the Trinity girls before taking the last few years to coach his son at the youth level.
“(Keith) Bike couldn’t have left any bigger shoes, between the championship and last year having a great run in the playoffs, and it’s a testament what he did with thethe kids too, how great they are, how receptive they are, t’s a testament to his good coaching,” said Farmer. “And it really helped me out because we have guys like DeVohn (Ellis) who allow me to be me and buy into this system, so that really helped us along to be able to win early.
“When this (coaching position) came about, I was contracted and encouraged to put in my application, and I was like, ‘you know what, I like the spot, I like the culture, I can do it.'”
He has.
And so have his players.
“I thought it would be a lot harder, you know, a lot more time before we got our first win, but with the buy-in being what it has been, that’s really helped us. From the guys being young and then DeVohn buying in, to be successful earlier than I expected,” said Farmer.
“It’s just character thing for me,” he said. “You know, I love that we always fight. We never give up, and that’s the mentality.”
The Pioneers improved to 4-3 with a dramatic 50-49 come-from-behind victory over visiting Windham (4-3) Wednesday night (interestingly, Trinity dropped a similarly intense one-point game to the same foe exactly one year earlier).
“Our culture is ‘who are you in the face of adversity,’ and tonight we showed a lot of character and pulled it out,” said Farmer after the contest.
“We called this a playoff game because they happened to beat (Nashua) South by a lot (76-56), and we didn’t beat South at all (66-59 loss on Jan. 5) … so for us, this was a statement game to get back on the right side, we need to be hungry for it and we didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but we stayed the course, honed in on the concepts and came through. Some of our guys had a bad game, but I love their effort level and I can’t stress that enough.”
Winners of three of their last four contests – including a 66-64 triumh over cross-city rival Memorial on Jan. 2 – the Pioneers look to carry their recent momentum into Friday night’s home contest against 2-4 Spaulding at 6:30 p.m.
They’ll have a one-week breather prior to Alvirne coming to Manchester for a 6:30 tipiff on Jan. 19, and then close the month with three-straight road matchups at Merrimack, Goffstown and Exeter on Jan. 23, 26 and 31, respectively.
“What we’re worried about right now is just building. We call it stacking days. We just need to stack consistent good practices and good habits and the rest will figure itself out,” said Farmer. “As long as we clean up those things, we’ll eliminate a lot of unforced errors, a lot of unforced defensive letups, so that we’ll get better and stronger. Solidarity is what we’re looking for.”
See a picture you like? Lavigne’s Live Shots for viewing and/or purchase.
