Men's Basketball Team Takes To The Court With High Expectations

Delaware Tech men’s basketball players Izaiah Credle, Noah Tran, and Daniel Bernard practicing before the start of the 2021-2022 season

The steady rebuild of the Delaware Technical Community College men's basketball program was derailed when the 2020-2021 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team was two seasons removed from not winning a single game, and one season removed from being a win away from the playoffs. Entering last season, the team had high expectations, and those expectations are carrying over to the 2021-2022 season.

"The expectations and goal for this team is to set our sights extremely high," said Head Coach Richard Rago. "We missed the playoffs in 2019-2020 by 31 seconds and expect to improve on that this year.

"We want a championship of whatever conference, tournament, or playoff that we play in."

The team will be led by returning players Rashaan Butler (Mount Pleasant High School), Tyson Tanner Jr. (John Dickinson High School), and Jared McGarrity (Countryside High School, Florida). All three bring differing skill sets to the team. Butler can take his opponent off the dribble and finish at the rim, Tanner is an imposing physical presence in the post, and McGarrity is a sharpshooter. Among the first-year players on the team, quick point guard Noah Tran (Countryside High School, Florida) and the high-scoring Izaiah Credle (Smyrna High School) will be two the team leans on for offensive production.

Also on this year's team are, Dan Bernard (A.I. duPont High School), Mike Groome (Salesianum School), Syed Myles (Caesar Rodney High School), Shawn Ysaguirre (Appoquinimink High School), Fritz Dorval (Christiana High School), Cyrus Chelucci (Charter School of Wilmington), Joe Jones (Appoquinimink High School), Malik Broome (William Penn), Miles Edwards (New Town High School, Maryland), Joey Donnelly (Newark Charter), and Cole Matthews (Smyrna High School).

"Fans can expect to see an up-tempo style of play from a very undersized team in our region," Rago said. "We are not big, but during the pre-season we have manifested a number of players who can shoot the rock."

"Though we are small, we have a much deeper bench than our previous years and those coming off the bench have shown that they too can put the ball in the basket. If we share the ball and make the extra pass, we can reach our goal," Rago added.

Rago also stressed the need for playing defense, both as individual players and as a team.

"We will be showing an in-your-face, man-to-man defense, along with a match-up and pressure defense to hopefully make our bigger opponents wonder where our defense is coming from," he said. "I see our season improving as our defense improves from game to game."

Delaware Tech's first home game is Nov. 4 against the Community College of Philadelphia starting at 7 p.m. at the Stanton Campus gym.

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Delaware Tech men's basketball players Izaiah Credle, Noah Tran, and Daniel Bernard practicing before the start of the 2021-2022 season.