By Matthew DeGeorge
The keen observer at Radnor’s gym will notice something different this year.
At midcourt hang a pair of changeable-text signs displaying names and numbers of the Raiders’ hoopsters. But where most displays would clearly delineate the teams — varsity on one board, JV the other — coach Chris Monahan has one roster of 16 names, filling the first sign and snaking onto the second.
That’s the ethos of this year’s Radnor team, a collection of players that all began with similar amounts of varsity experience: Roughly zero. From that pool, Monahan has made a daily task of culling rosters for varsity and JV games; it’s common to see half the JV team finish their game, then warm up with varsity and prepare for minutes there.
That peculiarity is part of the process for Radnor this season, and it’s starting to pay dividends, which included a three-game win streak over the holidays that demonstrated the progress from a 1-7 start.
“It’s definitely been a learning experience, but we just take every game how we want to play and execute our things,’ guard Vinnie Kelly said at practice this week. “It’s not really about wins and losses, but it’s about executing what we want to execute. It’s been hard, but the last three games, we’ve started to pick it up, and we’re starting to get better.’