For the first time since 2022, Mohawk Trail Regional will field a boys varsity basketball team. It will be the first full varsity schedule since 2020, when teams in the region played an abbreviated schedule.

The last real full varsity season was in 2019 with Darren Schmidt as the head coach. The team went 2-18 that season.

The Warriors will begin their season on Dec. 9 against Four Rivers at Stoneleigh Burnham.

There was never any doubt that Mohawk’s varsity program would return this season. A plan was in place for the Warriors. While waiting for the return of varsity basketball, the program had its existing players playing a junior varsity schedule. All while a core of younger players made their way up through the program. The younger group is the nucleus of the future.

“It was going to happen one way or another,” Mohawk Athletic Director Greg Lilly said. “I knew we had to get back into it now.”

Back in the 2022-2023 season, the Warriors had to cancel the remainder of their season due to low numbers. Dealing with an existing numbers problem, a rash of injuries dwindled the roster down to an untenable situation. Greg Thompson coached the team that season. Mohawk was 0-4 at the time of the cancellation.

“Looking back at it,” Lilly said. “I was being optimistic thinking we could make it happen. It just didn’t work out that year.”

This year’s team has four seniors and a dedicated group of younger players. After playing junior varsity the current seniors are ready for the challenge of a varsity schedule.

“We have a bunch of young kids coming through that are going to get experience,” Lilly said.

Fred Redeker makes his return as coach of the Warriors. Previously, Redeker coached with Scott Thayer at Pioneer Valley Regional. Lilly and Redeker both have kids coming up through through the Mohawk program.

“We’ve been planning this since I started,” Lilly said. “There’s a really good group of seventh and eighth graders right now that are fully bought in. We are confident that we can keep them here. We are hoping we can make that next step.”

Mohawk will attempt to emulate the formula for success of the Pioneer program, with younger players getting some tough varsity experience to bring success later in their careers.

“If anybody knows the blueprint,” Lilly said. “It’s Scotty (Thayer) and Fred (Redeker). Take a young team with low enrollment to success. Not that anything they have just done can be duplicated. That was was kind of ridiculous.”

Thayer and Redeker led Pioneer to an undefeated season capped by a state championship. The Warriors will begin play in the Tri-County North league against the likes of Smith Vocational, Franklin Tech, McCann Tech, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Turners Falls and Westfield Tech.

“It’s perfect for us,” Lilly said. “For us, getting our feet wet again it’s going to be a good situation to not be overwhelmed. It’s going to give us an opportunity to have a lot of younger kids getting to play without having their confidence killed.”

Schmidt is the junior varsity coach for the Warriors.