photo by: Landon Cory/Special to the Journal-World

Bishop Seabury junior Jace Smith shoots a floater against Veritas Christian on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Lawrence.

With the Kansas high school boys basketball season under a month away, Bishop Seabury hosted its Late Night event to introduce its team.

The Seahawks played a game against Seabury alumni that previously played for the team. The varsity Seahawks led 18-10 after a 10-minute half and won 35-17.

While this wasn’t the first time that the school has hosted a Late Night event to kick off the basketball season, it was the first time that the event included an alumni team that scrimmaged the varsity team. The Monday night event featured all the usual parts with raffle prizes and a celebration for the team.

Bishop Seabury has some high expectations this basketball season. The Seahawks finished as the runner-up in the Kansas 1A state championship last March, losing 76-63 against Montezuma-South Gray High School. Senior center Chase Honarvar said that the team expects to get back competing for a state title game.

“I’m expecting them to play faster… we play fast and get up and down the floor,” said coach Trey Johnson, who is in his second year as the team’s head coach after previously being an assistant coach with the Seahawks. “Our main focus is always defense. I feel like if no one can score, then the game is so much easier.”

The Seahawks have a mix of seniors and freshmen on the team, but they all have size. The team’s smallest player is 6-foot-0, and they have two players at 6-foot-7. Johnson said that the speed the team has at that size is what separates the group.

Bishop Seabury returns Honarvar and Jace Smith, who were both all-state players as juniors last year, as well as junior shooting guard Jace Hoffman. Those three, along with some new additions to the starting rotation, will be the focal point of the team’s offense. During the Late Night game, all three were active with the ball, either driving to the rim or shooting from distance.

“We’ve got guys that will be tough to stop on offense,” Johnson said. “But they all love each other — no one is trying to one-up each other. They just want to win.”

Smith and Honarvar spent a lot of the summer traveling to different colleges for their recruitment, so some members of the team didn’t get as much time in summer practices with the team. Johnson doesn’t see that as a negative thing, though, as those moments practicing away from the Seahawks allow those players to work on their individual game instead of only working on their game with the team. Even from the summer, Johnson said he’s seen improvement from those upperclassmen, which is a testament to the team’s individual work during the fall sports season.

One of the benefits to Bishop Seabury is the small school size, which helps foster the relationship the team has with each other. They are around each other far more often than at a larger school, with more common classes together. That close relationship the team has helps translate to the court, where they have a common bond and understanding.

That bond, along with a hunger for the championship they came close to winning last year, can help the Seahawks achieve their goals.