Coach: Justin Callahan
Record 21-9
Key player: Jordan Ankrom (15 ppg)
The Farmington Knights are the Cinderella story of this year’s Class 4 playoffs. The Knights are in the state semifinals for the first time in school history–and had gone 0 for 9 in state sectional games before this season.
Coach Justin Callahan is in his second stint as Farmington head coach, after going into administration, retiring, then returning two years ago when the school found itself without a coach unexpectedly. His son, Garrett Callahan is part of a senior-heavy squad that has used its experience to break new ground for the Farmington program.
I talked to Justin Callahan about his team earlier this week, and here are the highlights.
On the community response to the Knights’ unprecedented playoff run:
It’s been pretty overwhelming. Since we’ve won, I’m getting lots of texts and emails and media response. It’s pretty exciting. The community is really excited about it. I think there will be a nice crowd for us up there Friday night.
On his senior-dominated roster:
The senior leadership is crucial. This group of seniors, my son is one of them, there’s a few of them I coached through the years when they were younger. We’d go to St. Louis and Jackson and Cape, and go to Illinois and play some.
These seniors have played a lot of basketball. It’s a group of kids that when you look at the roster you will see there’s not a lot of size there. We’re not real big. Honestly, we’re not going to be the most athletic team up there either. But these kids have played a lot of basketball and have pretty good skills, and they play together. We’ll probably be the smallest team up there, but we’re still alive, and by playing hard and playing together, we can hopefully get by with that.
On junior Jordan Ankrom, the Knights’ leading scorer:
Jordan is a junior, but he’s been playing varsity since his freshman year. He was our leading scorer last year, and averaged about 17 last year. This year he’s down to 15-something, but we’re a better team. We haven’t relied on him as much. But as far as our inside presence, he’s our leading rebounder, our leading scorer, he plays very hard. He’s crucial to us on the inside and will score a lot around the basket.
He can step out and shoot threes on occasion, but down the stretch, we’ve tried to focus on everybody out here, and the guards are shooting a few more threes.
On his coaching philosophy:
“I go game-by-game. I think when you talk to coaches early in the year, most of them, almost to a man, will say ‘we want to get up and down.’ But then as the season goes on, a lot of us have to make adjustments. We’ve made adjustments.
“I’ve got some kids who can fast break, but is that what we’re going to be best at? It depends on who we’re playing and how we’re going to match up. At this point, we’ve been pretty deliberate down the stretch.
“The last two games we’ve played zone defense. That could shift. Primarily, throughout the year, we’ve played more man. We’re going to mix it up. Whichever gives us the best chance, that’s what we’ll go more of.