Ken Parham is looking to win a championship. The Huntington High School varsity basketball team’s head coach is far from content with the recent 12 win season that saw the Blue Devils advance to post-season play and top Newfield in the opening round of the playoffs.
Parham is competitive. Make that very competitive. He said he’s never failed at anything in his life and doesn’t intend to start now. He wants to develop a team capable of winning a title and he’s willing to put in the work to make such a lofty goal a reality.
Parham was assisted this past winter by Jordan Ioviero and volunteer assistant Kevin Thorbourne. The 16 player team was captained by Max Rentsch, Dylan Coleman and Clayton Ward.
Huntington compiled a 12-10 record, reaching double figures in wins and the playoffs for the first time in many years. But wasn’t enough for Parham, who wants the Blue Devils to be the best of the best.
Oh, make no mistake, Parham is pleased with how far this year’s team went and every win it recorded. Although Parham has coached basketball for more than 30 years, this is his first year as Huntington’s head coach so he is still developing the program along his philosophical lines.
Max Rentsch was named to the All-League and All-Conference teams. Hunter Borenstein was tapped as All-League and Henry Vohs garnered All-Academic honors. Ward and Dylan Coleman, although not post-season award recipients also played key roles in Huntington’s success.
Parham said his goal is “to continue to develop a program built for yearly success.” The coach participated in tryouts for the J. Taylor Finley Middle School team and is currently overseeing an intramural program four nights a week with two nights for middle school students and two nights for high school age students.
Huntington hosted a December tournament, but COVID-19 pandemic prevented fans from being allowed into the gym to watch the games. Parham is already planning to host another tournament next winter and he hopes the gym is packed.
The Blue Devils are losing Finn Cocoman, Kevin Drake, Charlie Girimonti, Aidan McNulty, Elias Frazier, Coleman, Rentsch, Vohs and Ward to graduation. Huntington will return varsity veterans Thomas Girimonti, Daniel McNulty, Nick Plachta, Josh Stephen, James Vohs, Jordan Jones and Borenstein.