Before every season, Patterson High School head boys' basketball coach Harry Martin goes through his team's schedule and tries to predict how it will do in each game.
After a disappointing campaign last season, in which the Clippers finished 14-10, Martin predicted his group would finish 15-7 this year. One of Baltimore City's elite programs, a 15-7 year would represent a nice season, but not one of the best during Martin's 11-year tenure at Patterson -- the Clippers had won four Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association regional titles, a Baltimore City title and one MPSSAA state championship with Martin at the helm before this year.
Martin's reasoning for only predicting 15 wins from this team came down to two things -- a tough schedule and an incredibly young team. Half of Patterson's roster was either freshmen or sophomores this year, including three starters who are in the 10th grade. There were also newcomers to the program in the form of two transfer sophomore guards who needed to get acclimated to their new surroundings -- Marvin Price and Gerard Mungo.
