Mohegan — Kirk Kaczor's two sons, Karch, 9, and Kashton, 6, attend all the Old Lyme High School boys' basketball games to watch their dad serve as head coach.

"These guys are their big brothers," Kaczor said early Sunday afternoon as Old Lyme's season came to end in the Division V championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena in a 62-41 loss to top-seeded Innovation. "These are the kids my kids look up to."

The players Kaczor's young boys have admired the longest: Old Lyme seniors Liam Holloway, Olin Frederiks, Jack Bocian and Quinn Romeo.

Those are also the guys who will graduate having led the Wildcats to the first state championship game appearance in program history, with Bocian and Holloway sharing a long embrace on the court following the final buzzer. Old Lyme finished the season 21-6.

"This group is really together," Kaczor said. "The seniors are in there crying, talking about what a great group it is. A lot of coaches will say it's a family, but in my case, I know (my team is) a family. ... I'll have a special place for those guys."

Frederiks said that a good number of players "play because they love everyone on the team."

"I love the rest of the team. That's what it's all about," Frederiks said.

Frederiks mentioned it's probably the last game of his competitive basketball career. The 6-foot-4 Frederiks is most likely going to row at the Division I level at the University of Wisconsin. He'll row this spring for Old Lyme, while, meanwhile, Holloway looks forward to a baseball season playing outfield and pitching for the Wildcats.

None of these seniors, in fact, are basketball's leading men. Frederiks and Romeo start for the Wildcats, while Holloway and Bocian come off the bench. Frederiks led the way among them against Innovation with five points and six rebounds, while Holloway had a team-high five steals in 17 minutes and took a flying leap into press row in pursuit of a loose ball.

"We just wanted to fight and hustle and claw against everyone," Holloway said of Old Lyme's mindset this season, which featured a Shoreline Conference tournament championship game, as well. "We fought back. We're never out of it."

"Freshman year we had a good team. We went to the Shoreline final," Frederiks said, describing the journey. "Sophomore year, as a team, we weren't really a team; we just never meshed. Last year (15-5 regular season, second-round loss to Capital Prep in the second round of the Division V tournament) was better and it prepared us for this type of run. No matter what happens, we can just block out the noise, work together and play for each other. That's really been like the whole motto throughout the whole year."

The Wildcats return three members of their starting lineup next season in Brady Sheffield, Ray Doll and 6-foot-5 Aeden Using, a first team All-Shoreline Conference first team pick who scored his 1,000th career point Sunday on the front end of a third quarter one-and-one.

Frederiks said he has no doubt next year's seniors will find their way back to the Shoreline final and the Division V final at Mohegan Sun. Holloway agrees.

"Absolutely," Holloway said. "They have a lot of talent and a lot of heart."

v.fulkerson@theday.com