James Monroe coach Matt Sauvage probably had one of the more difficult jobs this past season.
Sure, having a pair of first-team all-staters back would be an argument against that but it also meant the Mavericks faced monumental expectations after falling short a year ago.
With a heartbreaking loss ending James Monroe’s season last year, Sauvage didn’t allow his team to dwell on the defeat, instead guiding them forward.
He did a fantastic job in doing so.
The Mavericks became the second boys team in state history to finish with a 28-0 record, winning their state tournament games by an average margin of 28 points per game en route to the program’s first title.
For the team’s success, Sauvage had been named the inaugural Lootpress Boys Basketball Coach of the Year by the Lootpress sports writers.
Ranked No. 2 in the state for much of last season, an overtime loss at home to Greenbrier West in the Region 3 co-final put an end to a stellar season and raised questions about how, or if, the team would rebound. The official answer is reflected in their win-loss record as they haven’t lost since with their only in-game loss being later ruled a forfeit in their favor after Greater Beckley was forced to vacate many if its wins.
“Stuff like that can be devastating to older people but it’s especially devastating to teenagers too,” Sauvage said. “Going into the offseason, the good thing about the boys is we didn’t have to drive them. They’ve got the personalities to drive them to get better. Some kids will shut down, others it’ll drive them and we didn’t know which way it was going to go. So we decided we were just going to go into it and not talk about last year. It was a new year coming up so let’s focus on this coming season and the boys bought into it. It’s in the back of your heads but use it as a driving point. You could see it on the boys that it didn’t need to be mentioned. As a coach I was blessed to have athletes that could do that because the mental part is 50 percent of the game or more.”
Despite that upset, the Mavericks didn’t fly under the radar this past season. They entered as the No. 2 team in Class A and eventually took over the No. 1 spot in the coaches and AP polls after a January win over Greater Beckley.
That meant they received every team’s best shot which wasn’t easy with a slate that featured Greater Beckley three times – the team the Mavericks beat in the Class A championship game – and other teams in the top 10 such as Webster County and Greenbrier West.
There were a few close calls, such as a 54-51 win over Westside, but they held strong every time and played their best ball when it mattered most.
“As coaches, the first five to seven games of the season we weren’t looking at it as we’re one of the best teams in the state,” Sauvage said. “We were still trying to figure out where we were as a team. The first third of the season there wasn’t a ton – we didn’t feel like we had a target on our backs. It was more of, are we going to be able to be that team that has the target on its back? After we got through those first few games, especially with the injuries we had, we realized maybe we are that team that can have the target on our backs. Of course we went up to Greater Beckley and had the game that was a loss, or a win however you want to look at it. But the boys came back from that almost more driven than they were before and at that point we knew.”
When the Mavericks became the hunted, they enjoyed the role and accepted the challenge to return the favors.
“Our focus was what we were going to do each day to get better as a team,” Sauvage said. “Whether we had a practice or a game, the goal was to focus on that day and get better. Once again I give the credit back to the boys because you’re not always going to coach boys that can do that. The boys were able to accept what we were telling them and take it to heart and excel with it. It got to the point, it was probably the beginning of February, that the boys started to enjoy having the target on their backs. At first it was – everybody’s going to give us their best shot and then they started to enjoy that. Let’s see what we’ve got and push. It was almost an enjoyment to them and they relished in it.”
The terrific play led to a standout state tournament in which the Mavericks waltzed to a state championship, taking double-digit leads into halftime of every game under the direction of Sauvage. They never let off the gas as evidenced by their average margin of victory.
For a group of players that had never been to the state tournament the run was that much more impressive.
“A lot of that comes back to the boys,” Sauvage said. “Last year we got off to a lot of slow starts so one of the goals in the offseason was to fix that. Last year we had to fight back in the first half. This year our goal was to figure out how to switch that and last year we’d read what the other team was doing and make adjustments. This year we said we were going to make other teams adjust to us. We didn’t know if we could do it but we’d give it our best shot and speed the tempo up. For the most part we did that. When we got to the postseason we pushed the tempo to our pace and did it from the tipoff. Not a lot of teams like to play that pace and for my first four years here we didn’t like to play that pace. We were that team that was trying to adjust to that. Our goal this year was to play that pace from the start and I feel like we did that.”
Sauvage will be honored at the Spring Lootpress Awards Banquet – along with the other winter and spring sports award winners – on Saturday, May 28 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. He will also receive a $500 grant from the Lootpress Foundation to go towards the program’s operational needs.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94