Just like any other year during his now seven-season coaching tenure at San Clemente High School, Boys Basketball Head Coach Marc Popovich will tell you the team's goals for the 2013-14 season are to win league and make a nice, deep run in the playoffs.
   But things are a little bit different this year. Never before has Coach Popovich entered the season as the defending league champion. In fact, only one other coach in SCHS history ever has. And that was in 1975.
   To repeat, “Pop,” as he is affectionately called by his players and staff, will have to overcome a number of obstacles. Not the least of these is the fact that all but a trio of players from last year's team, including four players voted all-league, were lost to graduation.
   And the best of the returning players, junior Sam Darnold, the defending Sea View League MVP, is lost to the Tritons until after Christmas, having broken his foot while excelling as quarterback for the SCHS varsity football team.
   Looks pretty bleak, right? Well, not so fast. This new group of Tritons did something unprecedented during summer play. It won its division at two prestigious tournaments, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego, the latter without the services of Darnold.
   It helps that the other two returning lettermen are, as Vic the Brick of Fox Sports Radio would say, “not chopped liver and more than menudo.”
   Nick Crankshaw, as a sophomore, got spot starts for the Tritons, spent most of the season as sixth man, and gained a reputation as a lock-down perimeter defender.
   Cole Fotheringham worked his way into the varsity rotation last season as a freshman. Now, at 6-5, 205, he is one of the biggest players on the team, yet possesses guard skills and good shooting range. Fotheringham also came in at quarterback for the Triton varsity football team when Darnold went down. Get the idea that this 

might be a superior passing team?
   The addition of sophomore point guard Gage Shelmidine to the squad supports that thesis. SCHS had bemoaned losing Shelmidine, who grew up in San Clemente and was consistently ranked among Orange County's top point guard prospects, to Saddleback Christian his freshman year. But at the end of that year he decided the academics and friendships at SCHS were worth transferring. 
   Unfortunately for the Tritons, Shelmidine's transfer comes with another obstacle. Under CIF rules, he will be ineligible for the first month of the season, and will take the court for the first time as a Triton at Troy on Jan. 7.
   Another transfer, junior center Erik Anderson returns to San Clemente from Temecula, where he spent his first two years of high school after completing middle school locally at Shorecliffs. Because his transfer involves a change of residence, Anderson will be eligible for the season opener.
   At 6-6 215, Anderson is big, but he's not the biggest reason Coach Popovich can see past the obstacles and have an optimistic outlook for the season. That perhaps comes in the form of the seven players promoted from last year's Triton junior varsity team, which not just won a league title, but also went a school record 25-1 behind an attacking, fast-paced style of play.
   Among these players are the offensive and defensive MVPs of that J.V. squad, juniors Elijah Morris and Cade Griffin, respectively.
   Morris, a 5-10, 155 junior guard, is a fearless scorer who already has a number of game-winning shots during his Triton career, including the tournament winner at UC San Diego this summer.
   Besides being long and quick on defense, Griffin, 6-3, 185 junior, is a serious offensive threat anywhere from the post to out beyond the three-point arc.  

   Other players promoted from the junior varsity championship team are Sam Brown, Scott Herrod, Torrey Larson Austin Miller,Tyler Voigt and Rico Young, Jr.
   Brown, a senior center, like Anderson is 6-6, 215, and will be counted on to control the key for the Tritons.
   Junior guard Scott Herrod, 6-0, 175, is an aggressive defender, but more importantly a true sharpshooter, being perhaps the highest percentage shooter in the entire Triton program.
   Good enough to make the varsity squad last year, Larson, a 5-9, 150 guard, chose to move down to the JV squad in 2012-13 in order to get more playing time. He's looking to make that experience pay off in this varsity go round.
   Miller, a 6-2, 195, senior forward, may be happy just to be out from under the thumb of his older brother, Matt, head coach of the SCHS J.V. team. But he'll do a lot more than that, coming off a strong summer during which he started a number of games for the varsity.
   Voigt, a junior guard, plays much bigger than his 5-11, 175 pound size. He also is one of the fastest players in the program, and fearless going to the hoop.
   And Young, a 6-0, 185 guard, is known for his ball-hawking defense, which became a hallmark of his former J.V. squad. He carries this energy level over to the offensive end of the court.
   As if these guys weren't enough to give Coach Popovich reason for optimism, he also was able to raid another championship team, last year's Triton sophomore team, to call up its MVP, 6-1, 175, guard Joe Mann. He averaged around 25 points per game last year, and is one of the best long-range shooters in the program.
   With a strong veteran core, key transfers and the promotion of players with previous championship credentials, Coach Popovich hopes his oft-repeated goals are well within reach in 2014.