WOODBURY — After a blowout loss to the Litchfield Cowboys three days before Christmas, the Nonnewaug boys basketball season hit a low point.

Following the loss, an altercation occurred during the postgame handshake lines; the following practice, the Chiefs needed to re-center their focus, and we did that by doing team yoga.

Carter Casbarro, a junior on the team, grew up with yoga as his mother, Agnieska, is a yoga instructor. The yoga allowed us to re-center our emotions after a difficult beginning of the season.

“Meditation and yoga has helped me since I was little,” Carter said. “It was cool to see the team take it seriously and be able to benefit from it.”

Yoga caused the season to change its course: We ended up with a 20-4 record, including the Berkshire League regular season and tournament championships.

Nobody expected us to have the success we did.

The surprise improvement of the underclassmen led us to a successful season as well. Underclassmen Brady Herman, Robert Metcalfe, Derek Chung, Matthew Shupenis, and Lincoln Nichols led the Chiefs to victories.

A slow start to the season helped bring everyone together because we faced adversity, which challenged all of us and helped the underclassmen gain experience.

On Jan. 5, we traveled to Shepaug Valley for rivalry night about one year removed from losing by nearly 50 points that same night. Shupenis led us to a 71-56 win that sparked a 17-1 stretch in the season.

“That game turned our season around,” Shupenis said. “Nobody expected us to win, and when we did, we knew we could win the BL.”

From the expectations of being a mediocre team to taking down our rival Shepaug three times in one season, the course of the season shifted as our confidence grew.

Winning the BL in front of over a thousand spectators was one of the best feelings of my life — the atmosphere was electric and we all fed off the crowd.

Heading into the Division V state tournament as the No. 1 seed, expectations were high. Nonnewaug hadn’t had a deep state tournament for basketball in years. After a successful run, we fell to Coventry in the quarterfinals and finished the season 20-4 as BL regular season and tournament champions.

The team will return key contributors such as Herman, Metcalfe, Chung, Shupenis, and Nichols. The 2024-25 basketball season will have high expectations as the underclassmen will take on the responsibility of continuing the success of the past season.

This is the opinion of Chief Advocate reporter Ben Roden, a senior who earned All-State honors during the basketball season.