Covid-19, Coaching changes, and calling shots
By Rylan Styles
Staff Writer
The Cameron Aggies came into this season in a pandemic for the second straight year, with Andrew Brown as the Black and Gold bench boss in his fourth season.
As the 12th Aggie head coach, Brown was looking to turn the program around after a difficult 2020-21 campaign that saw CU boast a 2-15 record.
With a new crop of recruits, things were more optimistic surrounding the 2021-22 Aggies, who got off to a 1-1 start to the season, halfway to their season win total from a year ago. However, with a plethora of COVID-19 cancellations, a coaching change, and a nine-game losing streak later, there has been no lack of adversity for the Aggies this season as they turn in a 2-12 record with nine games to go.
With Jeff Mahoney taking over Head Coaching duties, the team looks for player-based leadership to get them through the turbulence. Enter Darius Green, Brock Schreiner, and M.J. Warrior. Mahoney and his staff have leaned on a trio throughout this challenging season.
Darius Green and Brock Schreiner have seen basketball, and life, change at Cameron University. Since 2018-19, they have been student-athletes. They have both seen life pre-COVID and the lone players on the roster to reach the postseason Lone Star Conference Tournament in Frisco, Texas. Recruited by Brown out of high school, the Tomball, Tex. and Choctaw, Okla. natives respectively have experienced many challenges in Lawton.
The most pressing problem is the Global Pandemic that has shifted college life as we know it, especially for student-athletes. Darius Green experienced life as a student-athlete before the pandemic. There was one difference in particular that Green noticed.
“Coming in to begin the week, expecting to have a game, and it gets taken away from you last minute,” Green said.
Green also has been exasperated because of being quarantined.
“This season [COVID-19] was more impactful than last year,” Green said. He gave the example of earlier this month when the Aggies entered a quarantine period for a week before getting clearance only to return to isolation the next day.
“It is frustrating for sure,” Green said.
The Junior forward explained that being isolated affects their body as well. After being in isolation, when they can return to the hardwood, there it can take time to get used to training again.
“You have to spend a day or two just getting your legs back, instead of preparing [to play] other teams,” Green said. “There are a lot more conditioning days than preparation days. Those preparation days are key [for winning games]. It has been a change.”
Unlike Green and Schreiner, M.J. Warriors became student-athlete during the pandemic.
The Oklahoma City native feels like he missed out on some of the usual college experiences because of the pandemic.
“Not being around the college atmosphere, I was stuck in my room all day,” Warrior said.
Schreiner mentioned the pandemic had been a culture shock, especially when he transitioned from his first two seasons to the last two. This was because attendance had been limited, or non-existent, over the last two years.
“We have just had to create our own vibes,” Warrior said. This made life challenging during games at the Aggie Gym.
While adjusting to life in a pandemic, the trio is also adjusting to a new head coach in the middle of the 2021-22 campaign, playing under Jeff Mahoney instead of the head coach that recruited these three out-of-towners to Lawton, Okla.
“We are all extremely grateful that [Andrew Brown] gave us the opportunity to come here,” Schreiner said. “But we have stayed locked in, and we’re in the gym non-stop. It has been different, but we have all embraced the opportunity to play.”
The team leaders had no shortage of praise for Jeff Mahoney’s “attention to detail.” This is a phrase all three immediately threw out regarding their new head coach, who is pulling double-duty as the top assistant for the Cameron Women’s Basketball program and now the head coach of the Men’s program.
For M.J. Warrior, he has his second new head coach in many years and again sees his role change on the floor as a member of the Aggies.
“I am just extremely grateful to be able to play the game that we love to play,” Warrior said. “We now all have the same end goal. All we want to do is go make the conference tournament and win the conference tournament.”
Warrior said that both his role on the team and the team’s mindset overall have changed. Everyone seems to be on the same page.
The Cameron Aggies on the court have seen an offensive overhaul in just a few weeks since Jeff Mahoney took over as head coach.
“He gets us in better spots. I think the biggest thing is Mahoney is more up-tempo, and that fits our roster,” Green said. “Mahoney, lets us go play.”
Brock Schreiner explained the change goes beyond gameday. He said that Mahoney draws up plays at practice.
“That is something I have not seen in four years here,” Warrior said. “We have plays that have a second and third option! The beauty in his detail is ten times different.
Everything has a purpose [under Jeff Mahoney]!”
Despite only being the head coach for two weeks, battling a global pandemic, and a losing record Jeff Mahoney is steering the program in the right direction and has the team leaders buying in and believing.