New coach hoping defense can lead Nashua North basketball

Forget everything you know about the history of the Nashua High School North boys basketball team.

Wipe the slate clean, because that’s what new coach Steve Lane has done with the Titans.

Lane, who returns to the sideline as a head coach for the first time in 13 years, takes over a North program that is not short on talent, but struggled last year with chemistry, injures and academics. Almost all of last year’s team is back for this season, but what that means, only time will tell.

“They’re trying to break some serious bad habits,” Lane said. “I have no idea of their background. I don’t know what went on and it’s probably better that I don’t know some of the things that went on because I don’t prejudge anybody. We’ve got nine seniors who are working hard, and a couple of juniors and one sophomore who all could see playing time during the course of the year.”

At the front of that group of seniors are guys who have become familiar names amongst high school basketball fans – Javon Williams, Ryan Gauthier, Anthony Farmer, Jake Mellin, Mike O’Connor, Liam Burke and Parker Jamerson.

Lane has made it clear to the players what he expects from them and where he wants to see them improve. A lot of it depends on whether or not North can play together.

“My main goal is to get them to play defensively as a team, and offensively as one unit,” Lane said. “Those are some things that they haven’t been asked to do in the past. At this point, I’m very pleased.”

If the players buy into what Lane wants, the first-year North coach believes his team could be very sound defensively, but the Titans were inconsistent on that end in the preseason.

“We have enough athletes that could make it very difficult for opposing teams to get into their offensive sets, or to get up and down the court,” he said. “Athletically, we’re pretty good. We did it one day and they understood it for two hours. (The next) practice, it was back to the other stuff. It’s a bit of a day-to-day process.”

North will open the regular season by hosting Exeter on Friday and playing at Trinity on Dec. 20 before playing in the Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament, which will be held at Nashua South this year.

“The guys who were here in the past, I think they understand where I’m coming from,” Lane said. “It’s going to start with defense, and if you play defense, you’re going to get a lot of playing time regardless of whether you can score.”