BEYOND THE ARC: PERSPECTIVE ON ST. MARY'S RYKEN & JOHN FLOWERS

November 14, 2006


Recently, head coach Dan Sancomb of St. Mary's Ryken of the powerful Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) in the Washington, DC area graciously spent a few minutes giving us a little insight into an emerging program in the WCAC.

Prior to becoming head coach at St. Mary's Ryken, Coach Sancomb spent five years as an assistant coach at Wheeling Jesuit University. He took on a tall task with St. Mary's Ryken as they moved into the competitive WCAC for the 2004-2005 season and did not win a single conference game. Last year they improved greatly with a 5th place finish in their league at 8-10 and an overall record of 16-10. They were led last year by John Flowers, who signed his letter of intent with West Virginia last Wednesday, as well as seniors Greg Brown (Navy), Srdjan Boskovic (Alabama-Huntsville) and Milos Micic (Davis and Elkins).

Along with Flowers, another key returning player is guard Julius Brown, who averaged 14 PPG as a sophomore and is being recruited for the class of 2008 by Penn State, George Mason, James Madison, VMI and Boston University.

The leader of this team is clearly the 6'7, 195 lb Flowers, who Coach Sancomb describes as a player who is a "great athlete, scores inside and out, great rebounder and defender." Flowers was the only player in the WCAC to average a double-double last year when he put up over 18 pts and 12 rebounds a game. Flowers continues to improve in preparation for Big East play. According to his coach, "He has improved his outside game. His ball-handling and shooting; worked very hard this summer," Coach Sancomb tells the Big East Report. Flowers chose WVU over early offers from Virginia Tech, Maryland, DePaul, Virginia and Texas Teach as well as interest from many more.

In addition to Flowers and Brown, Coach Sancomb gives us an early heads up on freshman Elijiah Mathews who will play on the St. Mary's Ryken varsity this year and, according to Coach Sancomb, "... have a chance to become a big-time recruit."

We would like to thank Coach Sancomb for taking the time to give us a perspective on one of the rising programs in the powerful WCAC and let our readers know what to expect from John Flowers when he arrives at West Virginia. We wish Coach and his St. Mary's Ryken squad the best of luck this coming season and hopefully we will get a chance to check in with them when the games begin.