2009-10 Season Summary
The Varsity Basketball team enjoyed a successful season this past winter. Despite having one of its youngest team in recent history, the team nonetheless advanced to the post-season for the first time since the 2002 – 2003 season, and finished the season with an overall record of 13 wins and 12 losses.
The team started the season in strong, though dramatic, fashion. The team won four of its first five games, by a combined total of five points. This showed early on the resolve and character that this team had. Despite having seven underclassmen on the roster, the leadership and desire to win that our upperclassmen provided shown through. After that strong start the team would battle all season long with some inconsistency. The team was never really able to get on a “roll” again. In fact, the team took some lumps and suffered some tough losses. However, the team never lost its focus, its drive, or its belief their ability and they continued to bounce back. This continued right until the very end of the season.
In the first round of the Western New England Class B tournament, the seventh seeded Winged Beavers had to travel to second seeded Kent. Having already suffered two double digit losses to Kent earlier in the season, the team knew that this would not be an easy game. After a back and forth start to the game, Kent began to open up a decent lead as the game went to halftime. The Kent team then opened up the second half aggressively and started to increase their lead. With only around ten minutes left in the game, Avon trailed by over twenty points. This truly was one of the moments in sports that reveal the type of character a team has. Less than ten minutes to go, down by over twenty points, on the road, and against team that has already beaten you twice…how do you respond? This Avon team responded by making a gritty and remarkable comeback. With just over three minutes to go, Avon had cut the lead to just seven points. A couple of unfortunate bounces derailed our momentum, and in the end we just ran out of time. Despite the loss, that game was one or the most rewarding for the coaching staff and it was a great testament to this team and its character.
All season long the team was lead by the work ethic and team first approach of its two captains Pat Miller and Connor Mooney. Latif Rivers also turned in one of the best individual seasons ever for an Avon player. Rivers finished the season as the team’s leading scorer, leader in assists and steals, and second on the team in rebounding. Rivers also set a single season scoring record, for any player to play under coach Roller, finishing with 530 points for the season. Jeyvi Miavivululu, Brian Kincade, and Andrew Cummings are graduating players who also made contributions. We will also say good-bye to our senior manager Anthony Springer who has been a tremendous asset to the program the past couple of years. There is a strong nucleus returning next season including rising seniors Darnell Davis, Taj Herrera, and Matt Jadovich, rising juniors Tafari Whittingham, Nnamdi Amilo, and Sam Rosichan, and rising sophomore Jihaad Pretlow. With that group returning, the coaches are very excited and optimistic about the possibilities for next season. 
Individual accolades this season:
- Latif Rivers: Team MVP, 1st Team All Western New England, 1st Team All Tri-State League
- Connor Mooney: Truman Johnson Award Winner
- Patrick Miller: Truman Johnson Award Winner
- Darnell Davis: Most Improved Player
- Jihaad Pretlow: 3rd Team All Western New England
