For the first time since 1977, the men’s basketball team will begin the season looking to defend its Class 4A State Championship. However, Head Coach Scott Heady said this won’t change things very much for how other teams prepare to play his team.

“I’ve always felt like having Carmel on your uniform, you’re going to get everybody’s best shot, in any sport,” Heady said. “The success we had last year obviously adds to that. Those teams that are playing you, not only are they playing Carmel but they’re playing the State Champions, but we’ve talked to our guys, and to us it’s not about that. It’s about understanding that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

Zachary “Zach” McRoberts, varsity men’s basketball player and junior, said he agrees with Heady about how teams approach playing against Carmel.

“Some people still aren’t respecting what we did since we lost so many people,” he said. “Being the State Champs and being Carmel, we’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

According to Heady, this year’s team needs to find an identity for how it will win games, and this will include players stepping into new roles.

“The identity is something that’s a process,” he said. “We have a lot of players in different roles. We have some returning players obviously with (senior) Michael Volovic and McRoberts leading the way. Zach is playing a whole different role this year; we’re expecting him to score more for us this year. James Crowley and James Volovic (two other returning players and seniors) are now starting instead of coming off of the bench. That identity is going to take some time.”

McRoberts said he agrees that the team will have to find the style that works best for them to win, but he thinks this year’s team will be similar to last year’s team in terms of how it scores.

“Surprisingly, I think we’re going to shoot it more this year,” McRoberts said. “It’s hard to match what we did last year, but I think we are going to be an even better shooting team than last year. We’re going to play hard every night, and that’s a good thing to have. Everybody’s going to bring their best every night. We’re always going to be tough. Nothing’s ever going to be handed to us; we have to go out and take it.”

Heady said another characteristic that defines this team is the lack of a true superstar, similar to the way last year’s team played.

“We don’t have the big time Division 1 recruit right now,” he said. “We don’t have the marquee guy, so in a way it’s the same situation as last year. I think we still have the ingredients to be a pretty good team and hopefully surprise some people.”

Heady said he thinks the way the team played last year will help them to succeed again this year.

“We hope that some of the things we established in the last year in terms of how we play will be consistent,” Heady said. “How we defend. We’ve got great teammates; they’re going to be unselfish. Those are all the reasons we won last year: toughness, coachable, great teammates. I like our team. We have a lot of the same characteristics that we had last year. It’s not about defending anything; that’s all done. It’s about pursuing the next one.”