Sussex Academy boys’ basketball elevating expectations

No wins, one win, two wins. It might be small, but it is the growing number of wins the Sussex Academy boy’s basketball team has collected as it tries to claw its way into relevancy.

Last season, the Seahawks carried five freshmen and judged themselves strictly on survival alone. For the 2025-26 season, they are expecting experience to translate into wins.

“This year, we would like to start measuring our success in wins and losses, measuring success on getting in-conference wins and being competitive in Governor’s [Challenge],” said coach Brad Leinbach. “Last year, we started to kind of touch a little bit on that.”

Leinbach will be leaning on his upperclassmen for character and his young guys to show progress.

“We do have some senior leadership, and we do have some sophomores who have a lot of experience,” Leinbach said. “We have high expectations for them.”

He’d like to produce turnovers, while limiting his own team’s turnovers, and see improvement in defense and offensive efficiency.

One of those senior leaders, Tate Sickler, took the reins of the offense his sophomore year. He’s learned first hand the Henlopen South is a division of teams who love to create pressure. He believes the best way to counter that is to master the basics.

“We're definitely in a developmental phase,” Sickler said. “Our sophomores are all coming up, they're all going to stay together, and in two years, they're going to be beasts running the court. But as of right now, we're definitely working on our fundamentals of the game, understanding chemistry between our teammates and just learning how to play together.” 

Sickler’s role on the court has transitioned a bit as he has gone from a point guard his sophomore year, a combo guard last year and is now going to be a point forward. He’ll likely get some drives, but the wheel will be in the hands of sophomores Farmar Amisial and Rico Nock, with both showing the ability to create for others and shoot from the outside.

While they may not make the tournament this year, the Seahawks are compiling a roster of ballers who play plenty of tournaments year-round.

“We've got some kids who play some AAU over the summer,” Leinbach said, noting his guys are working out and lifting when not practicing. “When I first started, that was no kids, then it was two kids. Now, it's six kids. And as we grow the program, that's got to be 12 kid; it's got to be 15 kids.”

Sickler thinks season-long and in-game patience will be critical to the Seahawks’ success.

“We can't rush things,” Sickler said. “We don't want to go out there and expect to win every single matchup, to destroy teams. It's going to be patience that's going to win us games. If we limit our turnovers, which I think the best way to do is patience, I think we'll get good looks, and if we get good looks, we win games.”