When you lose your school’s all-time leading scorer to graduation — the one who handled the ball and scored his 2,000th career point while leading you to the New York State Association of Independent Schools title — you’re supposed to be one downhearted coach. So, why is Chris Wirth smiling?

By Mitch Silver

When you lose your school’s all-time leading scorer to graduation — the one who handled the ball and scored his 2,000th career point while leading you to the New York State Association of Independent Schools title — you’re supposed to be one downhearted coach. So, why is Chris Wirth smiling?

“We’ll never replace Tyler Fernandez: it wasn’t just his scoring, it was his leadership. Still, I like our team going into the season.” That was the anything-but-glum second-year coach of the Rye Country Day Wildcats assessing his 2014-15 squad. “We have the best backcourt in the league. And now we have, potentially, the best frontcourt too.”

The backcourt first. Five-foot-nine senior co-Captain Vincent Conn, first man off the bench last year, will pair with fellow co-captain Salim Green, a 6’1” speedster and ball hawk who was the team’s second-leading scorer behind Fernandez a year ago. When they need a rest, junior Cameron Kinder, up from the JV, and soph Jared Jones are ready to keep up the defensive pressure Coach Wirth demands. “Everything starts with our D,” the coach said. “We’ll cause a lot of turnovers with our speed and good hands.”

Up front, the 2013-14 Wildcats boasted the “twin towers” of 6’5” Chris Picard and 6’4” James McPhail. McPhail graduated, but he’s been replaced by an even bigger tower; over the summer, 6’8” Emmanuel Chukwu transferred in from Monsignor Scanlan High School in the Bronx. A solidly built junior, Manny has played AAU ball with Salim Green. He’ll join Picard, still just a sophomore, in patrolling the baseline and cleaning the boards.

Meanwhile, 6’2” senior forward Jeremiah Washington should start out on the wing, with Jones, junior Robert Newman, and sophomore Colin O’Meara the likely 6-7-8 men in Coach Wirth’s rotation.

The Wildcats will be a tall team, with 6’2’’ athletes up and down the bench. Workhorse Matthew Farber and fellow junior Max Pomroy tower over their coach, as do sophomore twins James and Doug Kosann.

Rye Country Day has never won a Fairchester Athletic Association boys basketball title, and Coach Wirth is optimistic that this is the year. So optimistic, in fact, he hopes to skip defending the NYSAIS crown to enter the conflicting FAA tournament with a possible New England tournament bid to follow.
But first, his team has to get off to a strong start against non-league Scarsdale, a game played post-press time. “Scarsdale’s well-coached,” Wirth said. “They’ll be tough.”

As tough as the Wildcats will be? Don’t bet on it.