Freshman guard Darrell Davis (above) is part of a super-young Carroll core. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)
By Josh Verlin + Rich Flanagan
The state playoffs are a time where experience and maturity reign supreme.
Just don’t tell Archbishop Carroll’s boys that.
Francis Bowe’s Patriots have what has to be the youngest roster in the state, but they’re right there in the state semifinals on Monday night, a matchup with Scranton Prep upcoming at Bethlehem’s Liberty High School at 7 p.m.
Bowe doesn’t have a single junior or senior under his watch, like the high school version of a junior college roster. His sophomores are the experienced vets leading the freshmen, in a year when most of their basketball-playing classmates around the country are still on junior varsity rosters.
“It’s very unorthodox,” Bowe said. “I don’t know if a lot of coaches can say they’ve been in the same predicament I’ve been in. When you’re worried about what sets you’re running in January and how clean you look on the defensive side of the ball, I’m still reminding guys that you have to be locked in for two hours in practice, you can’t be daydreaming.