The Windsor Varsity boys basketball team is around the mid season mark and are coming off back to back  close wins against the Parkway South Patriots (52-48) and the Perryville Pirates (51-48).

The Owls seem to be on a hot streak as of late winning six of their last seven games, and with Senior Sonny Amabile ranking fourth in the St. Louis area in scoring at 21.4 points per game, the team just isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The Owls are currently 9-5 on the season. 

Head coach Ryan McArthy believes the team’s root of success this season has been a direct result of the new attitude and mentality shift the team has had on and off the court. McArthy often refers to this as the ‘culture’ of the team. 

“This team’s attitude has just been, refuse to lose. We take pride in our gritty defense and doing the little things to gain an advantage. We rarely are the bigger and more athletic team when we step on the court, so finding and keeping that edge is essential to our success. Everything we do in practice is a competition, and accountability is a core principle we believe in to make sure our guy’s habits on the court become consistent. With that consistency, we will be able to put four complete quarters together instead of playing to the level of our competition by losing momentum and dropping our intensity. We are far from where I envision this team to be by the end of the year, but it’s a process and we can’t get too high on wins and too low on losses,” McArthy said. 

 Another great sign for the Owls is that everyone is contributing. Despite the strong performances from the upperclassman, this Owls team is quite young this season and doesn’t seem to be lacking despite only having three seniors on the roster. 

Players such as Nathan Beerman, Logan Chaney, and Max Hartmann have all played significant time and McArthy is looking forward to watching them develop into leaders. McCarthy believes that there are many great potential contenders to take over the leadership role next season. 

“I am a hard coach to impress, but Sonny obviously has a major responsibility to lead this team in the right direction. His passion and work ethic is unmatched and he is learning and adjusting to provide that leadership for every possession in practice and games on both ends of the court. Some younger guys that have been developing this year that have made strides in their games are sophomores Max Hartmann, Nolan Hirth, and freshman Brenton Shirk. These guys are adjusting to the varsity pace, being aggressive, and being a sponge in practice which allows them to get better everyday while gaining experience. Nathan Beerman is a guy that kind of does it all for us, he can’t have a bad day and we look to him as our shield and motor. Logan Chaney has a great deal of potential and desire to be good and Gavin Kinworthy provides toughness and leadership. Overall, every single player is challenged and coached hard to meet expectations and buy into their role. This team is dangerous when everyone buys in, plays for each other, and celebrates their teammates success. That chemistry is hard to come by,” McArthy said. 

Needless to say, the Owls will look to compete for a district championship later this season. 

McAtrthy said, “I love these guys. Not a lot of people understand the commitment and sacrifice that it takes to be a part of something special. You don’t get there by being average or mediocre going through the motions. It takes immense work ethic, hard coaching, and demanding gruesome practices. Some of these guys have never been pushed this hard or held this much accountability in their lives. Everyday we come to practice, we know what our goals are to get where we need to go. Responding to adversity this year has been a challenge, but couldn’t be more proud to coach this group and watch these guys transform into young adults.”