Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan. Canfield’s Bryce Roberts drives to the basket during the Cardinals’ regular season win at Ursuline last season.

CANFIELD — Canfield saw considerable success last year in head coach Andy Vlajkovich’s first season leading the program.

The Cardinals repeated as district champions and won 21 games on their way to their second-straight regional appearance.

Despite returning just two key pieces from last year’s team after graduating a large senior class, Vlajkovich feels this year’s team is positioned to maintain the program’s recent momentum and not miss a beat.

“It’s what they want. I think it’s what they think too,” Vlajkovich said. “When you grow up in a program that’s had a lot of success — and having played here for Coach (John) Cullen in the 90s, we have the same mentality — you don’t want to let down what’s been built. In a good way, there’s a little bit of ego involved in that and there’s a little bit of pride involved in that. And that’s healthy. That motivates you, that drives you and those guys are hungry.”

Canfield returns senior Bryce Roberts, who led the team in scoring last year with 10.8 points per game, along with fellow senior Landon Shina, who started throughout the postseason last year and led the Cardinals with 12 points in their district final win over West Branch.

“Those guys understand our program, they understand our philosophy and they understand our offensive scheme,” Vlajkovich said. “Those two are just competitors. You saw both of them have a ton of success on the football field (this fall). Landon was a dude for them all year, but only a kid like Bryce Roberts could not play football for a couple of years and then go out and have the year he had.

“Those guys love to compete, and they’re both amazing kids. Forget the basketball side of it, they’re incredible young men, great students and I can’t imagine two seniors repping our program any better than that.”

How the rest of the team shakes out is largely up in the air. But Canfield’s junior varsity team last year went 20-1, and there are a large number of players from that team that Vlajkovich said will step into significant roles for the varsity team this upcoming season.

The Cardinals return a large junior class that includes Grant Seachrist and Joe Gabriel, who were part of the varsity team last year, but played minimal minutes on a senior-laden squad. Frank Tarantino was also expected to be a part of that contributing group this season, but instead will miss the season with an ACL injury.

The rest of the juniors includes Collin Casey, Ryan Hlywa, Dan Herrmann and Ursuline transfer Jace Riccardo, a 6-foot-6 wing who made a significant impact for the Irish each of the past two seasons. The sophomore newcomers include Donnie Ferko and Ben Ignazio.

“Some of those guys got some varsity burn and some varsity run, but not in some of the more crucial moments, and that’s probably a little bit of a weakness of ours,” Vlajkovich said. “It isn’t the experience, it’s the experience in the crucial moments. So we’re a little young. We’ve got nine juniors in our program, and we’re going to see some sophomores get some opportunities.”

What Canfield lacks in experience, Vlajkovich feels they make up for it with their skill and shooting ability.

Plus, with the conclusion of Canfield’s football season, the Cardinals finally have Roberts, Shina, Ignazio and Ferko back at practice, as they begin to get back up to speed with basketball.

“I do think we shoot the ball pretty well,” Vlajkovich said. “I think we probably shoot the ball a little better than we have as a whole collective unit. I think we have more depth of scoring, but the physicality part does make me a little nervous. Bryce, Landon, Donnie and Ben certainly aid in that, but in our first couple scrimmages, without those guys, we have not matched the physicality that I’d like to see. We’ve been good and skillful and made shots, but we have not been as physically dominant as I’d like to be.”

Due to that core group’s late arrival, Canfield will have to get those players up to speed on the fly with the Cardinals’ season opener against Chaney tonight.

The workouts and scrimmages they had during the summer to build chemistry will help, but the team will still have to figure things out through the first few weeks of the season.

“It’s just such an unknown because we’re only going to get a handful of practices with a core group of guys. They gotta figure each other out, and I gotta figure them out,” Vlajkovich said. “I think whatever happens the first couple weeks, I think the No. 1 rule is don’t overreact in either direction. If we come out and play really well, which is very possible, we haven’t reached our goal yet. And if we come out and look like we haven’t put the pieces together yet, it’s not the end of the world. I’m kind of expecting the unexpected early on.”