Woodbridge boys’ basketball coach Jonathan Toczynski. (Source: @jttoczynski on Twitter)
Second-year Barrons boys’ basketball head coach Jonathan Toczynski says it was all about the little things and attention to detail.
With his Woodbridge squad focused on that during a trial-by-fire first season in 2021-22 that saw five players lost to graduation, transfer or injury, they took their lumps in 2021-22, going 8-14. But there was reason to be optimistic.
For one, Toczynski knew he would have a good core coming back. And that they would be getting key experience. That paid off in the home stretch of the year, when they won five of their last seven games, including a GMC Tournament play-in victory over Perth Amboy Tech.
This year, led by top returning scorer Micah Eason, a junior who averaged 12.5 points per game and was a second-team All-GMC White Division honoree as a sophomore last season, the Barrons are off to a 2-0 start, something hey haven’t done since the 2017-18 campaign, when they finished 12-12.
Eason has scored 33 points and has 16 rebounds in the first two games, a 49-47 road win at Perth Amboy, and a 51-44 home victory over Edison.
And for his part, Toczynski – a JFK alum – is new, too, still learning in the second year of his first head coaching job, following a four-year run as an assistant at Bergen Catholic.
Want to find even more of the bright side? Woodbridge remains in the GMC White Division this year, but the group’s two best teams the last several years – Colonia and St. Thomas Aquinas are now up in the Red Division.
After two road games this week at Sayreville and South Plainfield, Woodbridge will face what Toczynski calls its toughest stretch of the year: three games in the Eric LeGrand Tournament against Union City, Colonia and Westfield.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Woodbridge head coach Jonathan Toczynski about the Barrons’ development, their 2-0 start, and their prospects this season: