By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Oxford basketball player Brady Margoupis enters his senior campaign with 799 points scored over his high school career. Barring an injury, the two-time captain should be able to scale that mountain during the eighth or ninth game of the season.

“One thousand points is a big goal and has always been one or our goals,” Pirate head coach David Aldrich said. “With that said, Brady could care less if he never scored another point as long as the team is winning.”

As a sophomore Margoupis averaged 19 points per contest and upped that average to 24.5 last winter. With only 201 points away from the magical number the senior would welcome the milestone, but as his coach noted he is not about stats.

“To get to 1000 would obviously be cool, but it is not my main focus,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. I’d like it to happen, but I definitely want to win more that accomplish the milestone.”

The senior has always played basketball growing up and loved everything about the sport. He also saw time on the baseball field as well but stopped playing the sport last year to join an AAU team to prepare for his senior season on the court.

Growing up Margoupis found himself playing guard, basically dictated by his size, but according to the Pirate athlete he didn’t mind the position. The now senior noted that he loved the position because it allowed him to control the pace of the game that his team would play.

Following the eighth grade, he started to focus heavily on his game, so that when he entered high school he’d be ready to make the team. Unfortunately, before his freshman season could even begin, it was over due to the Covid Pandemic.

“Freshman year really sucked. I was so looking forward to that year and playing basketball with the high school, but Covid put a stop to that,” Margoupis said. “There were no games, but I would still practice, either in my driveway or at the gym to stay sharp for when the season did begin.”

Thankfully, Covid did not carry over to his sophomore season and although Margoupis was ready, he found the tryout process to be rather nerve wracking. When he was named to the varsity squad those nerves quickly vanished and he began to find his role on the team.

Following his sophomore year, he knew what his role would continue to be, but he needed to work on his defensive game.

“Defense wins games and if we were going to improve and win as a team I would need to pick it up,” he said. “Not only did I play as much basketball as I could I also played summer league ball and worked on that part of my game.”

Coach Aldrich noted that as a sophomore Margoupis was an offensive player for Oxford, but he has since committed to both ends of the floor and has become a team player.

“We run a complex system both offensively as well as defensively,” the coach said. “He’s right there and competes every night. He’s as very coachable individual who does so many things right.”

As a second-year captain for the Pirates, Margoupis has the respect of his teammates because he not only leads by example but works hard and always says and does the right things. 

Last year Oxford finished the regular season 10-9 and after picking up a win I the first round of the Division 4 State Tournament, the Pirates fell to Millbury in the next round. This season they would love to change that scenario.

“Our number one goal is to win. We have a lot of kids coming back who can score as well as a couple of new kids who are also capable of scoring. “We are a very athletic team and would love to take our game further into the State Tournament than we did last year.”

Individually, the senior, who was named to the SWCL All-Star team last winter, plans on doing whatever his Coach asks of him as long as the team continues to win. When the season comes to an end Margoupis would love to entertain the thought of playing basketball on the next level. At this point in time, he has just started reaching out to schools.