After winning the 2022 AAU National Championship and playing through a chipped bone in his wrist, Chandler Dawes called it quits. That included switching schools out of St. Rita in Chicago and joining Overtime Elite in Atlanta Georgia. Chandler and brother Charlie both made the commitment to play for Overtime Elite in early August.
Paul Hammond on the other hand has decided to forgo his college eligibility and go directly to the French Pro League, where he will be joining the Metropolitan 92s and teaming up with 2023 NBA Draft Lottery pick Victor Wembanyama. Coach Will Jenkins after chasing that elusive AAU Championship trophy with the Dawes twins, Paul Hammond and Conor McCaffrey has called it quits after the brutal 2022 Finals run that the Falcons embarked on.
Those holes left by those calibar players leaves lots of questions, who will be next year's star to replace them. If we go back to April 2022, the Falcons cruised in April atop the Illinois standings in every category, but once Chandler Dawes fractured his wrist (which was revealed to never fully be healed) and Paul Hammond got a Grade 2 MCL sprain which kept him out 4 weeks, the Falcons found themselves once again in flux.
Conor McCaffrey took upon himself to carry the offensive load, but after finishing a brutal school season and dealing with major injuries of his own, McCaffrey played himself to absolute exhaustion every weekend just to try and keep the Falcons relevent, and Coach Jenkins made that job for McCaffrey a lot easier than it's going to be without him this season. The Falcons without Jenkins will lose their calming presence on the bench this season.
Dawes and Hammond would return in May and the team cruised into the State Tournament on a massive hot streak and smoked everybody. Going into the National Tournament the Falcons shook off Team Get Shook in 4 games and played in two brutal series against Team Thad and the Oakland Soldiers, beating them both in Seven Games. Eventually taking on the offensive powerhouse known as the Dream Vision, Chandler Dawes with the help of clutch shots from Conor McCaffrey took down Dream Vision in seven and won the 2022 National Championship.
The 2023 Falcons roster is going to look a lot different than it did in February of 2022. Conor McCaffrey, Jake Pollen, Jamison Jones, Clarence Davis, and Jaiquan Marquez are going to return, but there's not enough offensive firepower to win Stare in 2023, the Falcons are going to need to find players to fill up their bench, since Pollen, Davis, and Marquez are nowhere close to being productive and efficent every day.
The Falcons are going to have to rely heavily on the production of their now 9 year AAU Veteran Point Guard Conor McCaffrey, who might possibly take a limited role on the Crusaders Varsity team in order to get ready for the offensive load he would have to carry to keep the Falcons in State Contention.
McCaffrey suffered a concussion in December and cracked a rib in January by going into the scorestable at full speed. Those two injuries took a long time to heal and McCaffrey seemed slow in March starting off the season, something he can’t afford to due in 2023.
But McCaffrey can’t do it all alone, as we’ve seen from last April, he’s going to need significant offensive production from Jamison Jones and Jake Pollen. And newcomers Ben Chambers and Malcolm Thomas are going go provide an offensive spark off the bench, something this team needs. Clarence Davis will be the next veteran on the roster and will be the defensive stopper the Falcons need.