New Free State High boys basketball coach Sam Stroh instructs campers at the FSHS basketball camp Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at FSHS.

Free State High’s boys basketball camp has featured several new faces this week, including first-year head coach Sam Stroh.

Stroh, who was hired in April to take over the program after Chuck Law stepped down, made his style of play apparent Wednesday when he emphasized boxing-out on the defensive end and then quickly getting the ball to the other end of the floor.

“You can tell by his past that he’s really good,” FSHS senior-to-be Hunter Gudde said of Stroh. “He’s really pushing us more than I bet all these guys thought that he would. I think that’s really good for us. It will get us in shape and ready for the season.”

The former Shawnee Heights coach has been incorporating his own philosophies in camp this week, but he does not want to change completely everything the Firebirds have been accustomed to.

New Free State High boys basketball coach Sam Stroh instructs campers at the FSHS basketball camp Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at FSHS.

“We want to push the tempo on offense. Defensively, we’ll probably play mainly man-to-man,” Stroh said. “I’m still learning their style. With high school, you kind of have to work with what you have. So we’re working with what we have and installing what we think will work best on offense, whether it’s ball screen or a five-out-motion-type of thing.”

With Weston Hack’s 16 points per game gone, Gudde figures to be the go-to player for the Firebirds with his fearlessness to attack the basket. Although Gudde has the most experience at the varsity level, he knows he’ll have plenty of help from players like Jacob Pavlyak, Sloan Thomsen, Jay Dineen, Shannon Cordes, Kristian Rawls and Chrision Wilburn.

“I think we’ll have more of an overall team,” Gudde said. “We won’t have a specific guy doing everything, like Weston kind of did last year. We’ll all work as a team better.”

Players participate in a drill at the FSHS basketball camp Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at FSHS.

Gudde and Pavlyak have utilized the camp to get a feel for Stroh’s coaching techniques, as they are fresh off of competing on Free State’s state-championship baseball team. Pavlyak said there is a lot that he learned from the postseason baseball run he can implement in basketball.

“It really showed us what it takes to get there and win it all,” Pavlyak said. “It took a lot of hard work and effort. It was one of the best feelings in my life, and I would love to do it again on the basketball court.”

Stroh said he has liked what he has seen so far out of his new team. In several of the drills the team has been working on, he has mixed the players with varsity experience with several of the underclassmen so they will quickly pick up the fundamentals.

“Absorb, learn and compete,” Stroh said. “Take what we’re teaching you, absorb it, come back the next day and show us that if you make a mistake, correct the mistake.”

Free State junior Cameron Clark dunks at the FSHS basketball camp Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at FSHS.

The returning players are aware of the success Stroh had in his two years at Shawnee Heights. He coached the Thunderbirds to a 20-3 record and state-tournament berth last season.

Gudde plans to do everything in his power to help lead the Firebirds to the state tournament in Stroh’s first season with FSHS.

“He’s a new coach, and just trying to get the program better and better each year is what he’s really wanting to do for this school,” Gudde said. “We need to start him off on a good track.”