The St. Vincent Indians boys basketball team ended the 2023-24 campaign with a 17-11 record and a Class 2 District 4 Championship before falling to Puxico in the sectional.

Because of St. Vincent’s football team going all the way to the Class 1 Final Four, many basketball players did not get into the gym until after Thanksgiving.

The Indians lost four out of their first six games by wide margins before the team got things going, once they did the success followed in the form of 15 wins to just seven losses (all of which were within six points).

“We had a good season last year, but we’re hoping to get even further this year. I was a little disappointed in the sectional game with Puxico, but give them credit they played well and I don’t think we played our best game,” St. Vincent head coach Bruce Valleroy said. “It took us a while to get going because of our football success but around New Year's we started to roll pretty good and got to where we finished.”

The Indians lost three seniors, Jacob Schremp, Payton Strattman and Logan Hornburger, and will have just two this season. Valleroy said he is very excited to have almost everyone returning this season.

In the Chaffee Varsity Summer Shutout this week St. Vincent played six games against local competition and their final game against Advance gave Valleroy a chance to gauge where his team is currently at after the event.

“We've got two seniors coming up, Boston Tarrillion who is injured right now he's in our six-four kid inside, and Parker Ellis. Max Wheeler and Wyatt Winkler are juniors and then we got some sophomores that played on the varsity team last year that will play again on varsity this year,” Valleroy said. “Colden Prost started for us last year and then we have Gavin Hotop, Quinton Doza, and Case Hooper. So we're looking for all those guys to continue to play as much as they did last year.”

Parker Ellis said he is going to be able to help the team with some of the things he feels they will struggle with.

“I think we may struggle on height a little bit but defensively our team is very quick, my quickness allows me to guard bigger guys,” Ellis said. “Rebounding and defense are some of my strengths but I think we are all growing and building together for when the season starts.”

With nearly the entire varsity team returning, St. Vincent looks primed for another post-season run. A rematch with Puxico is likely as the Indians further south also lost just three seniors, Valleroy is not concerning himself with the future right now and said he just wants to keep last year’s success rolling into 2025.

“We lost two good seniors but we feel like we got a good bunch of kids returning and we can hopefully keep it rolling. We don't have any new players on varsity this year, they're all coming back,” Valleroy said. “So whatever plays we put in last year, we can put in again this year and we've added a lot more, we're able to add a lot more because they kind of know what was going on from last year. It always makes it good that you don't have to bring in new kids and restart and everything so we're moving things a lot quicker now than we probably have in years past.”