By ALEX SPONSELLER

The Cranston West boys basketball program will be welcoming in a new, but familiar, face to take over as head coach, as James Sweeney was hired last week.

Sweeney, a 2014 graduate of West, has been the team’s junior varsity coach for the past five seasons and regularly helped in the Falcons’ athletics department since his graduation. Former coach Matt Fontaine resigned in April after spending one season in the nest.

When Fontaine shared the news that he was likely stepping away, Sweeney began considering putting in for the job.

“When he put that bug in my ear, I had to think, ‘Is this something that I would want to do?’ I figured that it was a ways off which was fine, but sometimes opportunities come up. Once he resigned, once he gave me a vote of confidence, once I knew that the coaching staff was on board with me coming back, once I knew I had the support from the players, that is what pushed me to say ‘I’m ready for this,’” said Sweeney.

After years of hoping to one day lead his alma mater, Sweeney finally gets his chance to live out his dream as the school’s head coach and to continue to be ingrained in the West community.

“It’s a dream. For me, coaching basketball at Cranston West is all that I want to do. Some guys, they want to climb the ladder and go to college, Division I. For me, coaching at Cranston West is a dream. To get it at 25 years old, it is something I couldn’t have dreamed of. West has meant the world to me. The school, the kids, some of my best friends are teachers at West, administrators. There is just so much support there, and I have been Cranston West through and through. It’s a close knit family. It’s everything that I wanted and everything that I wanted to be. It’s going to be a very proud moment stepping out there,” said Sweeney.

In terms of the transition from JV to varsity, Sweeney expects a challenge, but is ready to take it head on.

“There’s definitely a difference. As much as I treated JV with great importance, I felt that there were some programs out there that didn’t and it hurt those programs. There’s a major difference when it comes to the expectations. You can fail at the JV level, at the varsity level you can’t do that. You have to do things the right way, do things properly and go out there and win. We have a great staff, a great group of kids that will hopefully follow my lead and hopefully we can work together and make the best of it,” said Sweeney.

The Falcons missed the postseason last year in what was a rebuilding season. Now with a more seasoned group, Sweeney believes that next year’s club will go as far as its upperclassmen will take it.

“The experience level is starting to grow and the question is, can we translate that experience into wins? I’m going to put the pressure on them to steer the ship and lead. I’m big on player leadership and having the seniors set the bar for the program,” Sweeney said. “We’re going to go out there and be as tough as we can be. We want to be the tougher team night in and night out.”