Athlete of the Week: Souhegan's Seth Cordts

Seth Cordts has done whatever he can to make the Souhegan High School boys basketball team better.

When the Sabers needed someone to run the point a year ago, Cordts spent the offseason leading up to his junior year working on his ballhandling. Sure it was a skill he was going to need if he had any hope of playing at the next level, but Cordts knew it was something his team needed.

Going into this year, Souhegan coach Mike Heaney told Cordts he was going to need to score more if the Sabers were going to be successful.

So far, so good – Cordts has averaged 15 points a game this season and the Sabers are 6-1 in Division II, their lone loss to undefeated Milford.

In his last three games, Cordts has averaged 16 points in three Souhegan wins, including 17 in the Sabers’ 97-92 win over Goffstown on Tuesday. For his efforts, Cordts was selected as NH-HighSchoolSports.com’s Athlete of the Week.

As the Sabers prepared for this season, Heaney knew he would have a small, but strong group of seniors to provide leadership for his underclassmen. What Heaney didn’t know, was how that would translate onto the court.

“We talk about senior leadership on the team because those are the guys who have been here a couple of year, they know what I expect, they know how I want the locker room handled,” Heaney said. “We knew we would get that. (Cordts) has gone so far beyond that on the court.

“We knew he would be a good player, but he’s really becoming a great player. He’s such a great defender and now a good scorer. He’s policing our locker room and policing our practices. We really challenged the guys to get after each other, so it’s not the coaches who are always pushing them. He’s really done both those things.”

While Cordts focused on his scoring during this past offseason, the foundation for his hard work started years ago when he decided basketball was his top sport. A varsity soccer player at Souhegan, Cordts had played both since about third grade, but basketball ended up being the first choice.

“I have better coordination with my hands,” Cordts said with a laugh when asked if the decision came down to hands or feet. “The speed of basketball is faster and the change of momentum is faster. It’s a wider range of emotions in basketball between the ups and downs.”

There were plenty of each during last season, Cordts’ junior year. The Sabers started the year strong, but struggled down the stretch. Although Souhegan made it to the playoffs for the second straight season, the Sabers were bounced in the first round.

This year’s goal is to change that and it started with chemistry.

“Our main goal was team chemistry, because that’s what you need to win,” Cordts said. “You can’t just have one player that does all the work. Our other goal was our defense. Last year, our defense wasn’t as strong as we wanted it to be. That’s what kept us in games we’ve been in.”

Having three scoring options on offense has given the Sabers a boost as well.

“With (Cordts), Devin (Gilligan) and Brandon (Len), we really have three scorers,” Heaney said. “Seth has always been a great player, a great team guy, great leader, now for us to be as good as we can be, he has to score.”

The addition of Len, a sophomore who has taken over at point guard, allowed Cordts to go into the offseason concentrating on the other aspects of his game.

“Last year, playing the point, that was hard for him,” Heaney said. “We knew late in games in the second part of the season, we thought he was starting to wear down because he had to handle the ball and the pressure all night long. Having Brandon there now, too, he’s able to get more touches, we’re able to get more quick hitters for him, and he’s upped his scoring.”

Although the Souhegan coaching staff could tell Cordts was a good player as a freshman, Heaney admitted that the senior has surpassed every expectation that the staff had for him. That has put Cordts on a path to play at the next level, and he’s still deciding between a handful of colleges for next year.

Before that, Cordts and the Sabers still have one more goal – getting to UNH.