Day and night: That’s the difference between what Will Angelini was as a freshman and what he is now as a senior on the court for the Pentucket Sachems.
Averaging nearly 17 points and 11 rebounds as a dominant inside force, the 6-foot-6 Sachem center will be a Cape Ann League All-League selection at the end of the year, but according to his coach, Leo Parent, it wasn't always that way.
"(Will's) having a good senior year, kind of what we expected, but he's come a long way since his freshman year," Parent said. "After his freshman year, he really fell in love with basketball and it became something he really wanted to work at.
"He put a lot of time in the offseason working on his game, on his skills and fundamentals, and slowly but surely that hard work has paid off," Parent said. "He's a better player as a junior than he was as a sophomore, and a better player now than he was as a junior. He's continued to make progress for us, and he's one of the reasons we had some success last year and are having success this year."
Literally tossing and turning about the game, Angelini says he goes to sleep at night thinking about basketball.
"Practice, I want it bad," said Angelini of his desire to become the best player he can be. "I shoot by myself, I work on my handle in my basement. It's a big cement basement, but I just put on my headphones and dribble, anything I can think of (to get better). I sleep thinking of how I can improve, I can't even go to sleep without thinking of basketball."
After a rough sophomore season, Angelini realized a jump shot would do wonders for his game. He quit baseball and began to focus primarily on basketball. Tireless hours in the gym, including hoisting up 300 shots in a session, has shown on the court. On a team that has perhaps the best 3-point shooter in the CAL in Corey McNamara, Pentucket (9-5) also sports a center with perhaps the best range of any big man in the league, as Angelini has a polished 15- to 18-foot perimeter game.
"He shoots the ball well, and knocks down the outside shot well on the perimeter," Parent said. "A lot of that is through time and effort he put into his shooting. Basketball is the type of game that's complicated, there's a lot of skills and factors involved, and if you don't put that hard work in, it's really hard to make improvements. He's spent the time and it's paid off for us and it's paid off for him."
As a result, Pentucket has one of the more balanced teams around. With McNamara a deep threat on the outside, Nolan Dragon's creative slashing ability and Angelini in the post, opponents have to pick their poison against the Sachems.
"Because of his size and ability to score, teams have to respect him when he gets the ball in the post," Parent said. "I hope between (Corey and Will) you have a nice inside-outside game. It's also nice to have the flexibility to have Will shoot a 15-footer and feel like that's the best shot we can get in our offense. We like to see him score on the inside, but he's versatile and he can shoot from the perimeter. We're not going to take that from him, we want him to be aggressive as a basketball player and score from different spots on the court."
Because of all his improvements, teams like Salem State are hot on Angelini's trail. According to his coach, the college game is very much within his sights, something he may not have foreseen a few years back.
"He catches the ball well, it's all part of the progress, so many repetitions," Parent said. "He's worked on his ball handling, and there's still a lot of things he can improve upon. I think that's the exciting part of his game is that he's not a finished product. He's continuing to improve and he knows he still has a long way to go. His goal is to play college basketball somewhere. If he continues on his progression, he'll certainly have the opportunity to do that.
"It's a credit to his work ethic," Parent said. "He was not on anyone's radar as a freshman or a sophomore, but he's continued to play a lot of basketball and be seen by a lot of people. He's fun to work with because he's someone that has a passion about the game," Parent said. "I can't take credit, he's put hundreds of hours in during the summer on his own. He deserves the credit. It's a night and day difference from his freshman year up to his senior season."
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