Coach Kilian directs an agility drill at a recent practice.
(Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The sounds of dribbling basketballs and squeaking shoes can still be heard from the gymnasium at the Bromfield School. The season may have concluded for the Trojan varsity boys’ basketball squad, but for some players, a new basketball season is set to begin. Players and fans alike are getting more than they bargained for out of first-year head coach Ryan Kilian, as his lofty expectations for the program extend beyond the players inside the four walls of Bromfield.
“What drew me to [Harvard] was the ability to run a town program,” said Kilian in a recent interview. That town program he alludes to is the Mass Prep Stars Basketball Club, an AAU basketball team based right here in Harvard.
Going on its second full season, the club will feature five boys’ teams from grades 6 through 10, with hopes of developing a girls’ side for the 2015 spring season. Each grade will field one team, with players traveling from as far west as Ashburnham and Westminster, as far north as Chelmsford and Lawrence, and as local as Hudson and Harvard, to compete in five weekend tournaments, with two additional practices during the week. The club just finalized those rosters after tryouts were held at Bromfield on Sunday, Feb. 23.
Someone who wants to ‘develop and teach’
“I’m just someone who wants to develop and teach,” admitted Kilian, a Chelmsford native and teacher in the Lawrence Public School district who believes that the hectic regular-season schedule cramps the development of fundamentals. In Kilian’s eyes, the off-season provides more time for players to really focus on their own skills, ideally leaving time during the high school season to work on team-based fundamentals, such as the implementation of a team offense and defense. “In the off-season we really need to focus on getting better as individual players,” said Kilian. “We really want to teach good habits at an early age, to try and understand the game in a bigger picture.”
Individual players a high priority
Kilian will coach the eighth grade team and hopes that if a player starts the program at an early age, the transition all the way up to the varsity level will be simpler, whether that player chooses to attend Bromfield or not. While improving skills like the post-entry pass and man-to-man defense is certainly important, Kilian says that the individual within the team game remains high on his priority list for not only the Mass Prep Stars, but for the boys’ squad at Bromfield as well.
As both the Mass Prep Stars program director and head coach of the Bromfield boys’ basketball program, Kilian strives to create a “town-wide” program, in which both teams can enjoy success by sharing the same basketball strategies and philosophies. “They’ll start hearing the same things, hearing the same language. If they start becoming familiar with it, the idea is that they learn it and apply it when they get older,” he said.
Kilian enjoyed success as a coach before coming to Bromfield. After coaching youth and AAU teams while attending the University of New Hampshire, Kilian eventually landed a spot as an assistant at Lasell College in Newton in 2001. Lasell’s teams made the NCAA Division III tournament three times during Kilian’s three seasons there under the wing of mentor Chris Harvey.
A winning record
In 2011 Kilian became the head coach at Concord Academy and improved the squad’s record to a respectable 11–8 and a fifth-place finish in the Eastern Independent League. Those results came just one season after an abysmal 1-16 posting when Kilian was an assistant. A 14-7 finish in Kilian’s second year at the helm guaranteed Concord Academy a third-place finish in the EIL, and his run-and-gun style of basketball was well suited to the athletic Trojan squad this past season, despite their losing record.
According to Kilian the tenth-grade Mass Prep Stars team is comprised mostly of Bromfield players, notably sophomore and Midland Wachusett D-League All-Star Jake Frackiewicz. This bodes well for the near future of both programs, and Kilian has high hopes for the Mass Prep Stars and the Trojan varsity boys’ squad as long as the focus remains on working hard in the off-season. “I’ll put it on them,” Kilian said, “I have high expectations for their work in the off-season if they want to come back as a part of this thing.”
Greg Maynard is a Harvard Press intern and a senior at Fitchburg State University.
