Mid-Ohio Valley Winter Sports: Roane County basketball teams look to keep improving
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SPENCER -- Third-year Roane County head girls basketball coach Shandi White is more than ready to make due with a roster of nine that's led by lone senior Anna Tolley.
Although not ideal, the Raider boss thinks her squad can do just as well as last winter when they finished 16-8 and came up a win shy of the Class AA state tournament after falling to Charleston Catholic in the regional.
"I only have one freshman (forward Avery Helbig) that came out. I had more, but they quit," said the coach.
"We did some flex coming into it right before and one girl made it one day and another girl made it two days. We have three middle schools that feed into the high school.
"There weren't a lot of eighth graders because only two of our middle schools had a team and it will be the same this year, and one of the teams only had one eighth grader. It was already pretty tough. Everybody is pretty young right now, including us."
Tolley was a double-A honorable mention all-state selection after averaging 14.7 points, 3.7 boards, 1.5 assists and 2.9 steals a game.
While the junior class has five members the only sophomores are guards Amelia Pope (4.4 ppg) and Kylie Clarkson.
"They are returning from that class. Addison (Griffin) is looking to have to get knee surgery. Hopefully we'll get her back next year," said White, whose juniors are Josie Cox (G), Jozee Proctor (G), Joplin Harlan (F), Ella Keen (G/F) and Rilie Rhodes (F). "I think it's going to be totally attainable just for the simple fact of how young we were last year and we got four starters returning.
"I started a freshman, two sophomores and a junior last year. To go 16-8 last year with how young we were was pretty impressive in my opinion, so this year we're looking to actually build on that. Obviously the goal is to always make it to the state tournament."
Braylin Bowe graduated after putting up 10 points a night and Keen will be out to improve upon her averages of 5.1 points, 4.8 boards and 1.1 steals.
Another year of maturity, in the end, is what White hopes will get the Raiders, who still plan to apply maximum pressure, over the top.
"Hopefully we got those nerves out of the way now and they've just been going really hard at it this summer in the offseason," said the coach, who admitted the Raiders generally run four guards and a post. "I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish this year.
"Honestly, I feel really great about all nine, even the incoming freshman. They are all working extremely hard and they are all having moments where they shine in practice. It's been really good because we are getting a lot of consistency from everyone."
BOYS BASKETBALL
Third-year Raiders boys hoops coach Brayden Miller will look to seniors Cooper Greathouse and Will Odle to lead the way following a 5-18 campaign as the varsity roster is set to open with 11 players.
Calhoun County transfer Brennen Carpenter is in the junior class along with Phil Stricklen (G), Zeke Taylor (G) and Dalton Wilson (F).
Also expected to open on varsity are sophomores Wade Rhodes (G), Logan Beebe (G) and Logan Wilson (F) as well as the freshman duo of Brock Williams (G) and Levi Nichols (F).
Greathouse put up 3 points and 4 boards last year and Odle finished with averages of 13.5 points and 6.4 rebounds. Dalton Wilson saw action in every game and put up 2.7 points and 2 caroms a night.
"Brennen averaged 11 for Calhoun last year," said the coach. "It's so early it's really hard to project what we'll look like, but everybody has improved. Brennen will be a primary ballhandler for us.
"We really only have two true big men between Logan Wilson and Will Odle. The rest are guards. Cooper, Dalton, Zeke and Phil are the guards we're looking at and maybe some Wade Rhodes, too."
Roane County once again is expected to be aggressive and plans on looking to run, but they are still in search of a true team identity.
"We went to two shootouts at Glenville and Herbert Hoover. They played in a summer league this year that was not school sponsored. They did a lot," said Miller, who noted they didn't have summer league last year. "We are much more athletic and physical than we were across the board last year, significantly more.
"I really don't know what the team is going to be. I know we're going to be very physical. We're going to look to run. I think we can go a couple different ways. I want to play fast basketball and I want to weaponize space where pressure across the entire game doesn't just score points, but it also leads to easy buckets."
Miller said the Raiders planned to go with a full court pressure attack last winter, but the personnel "didn't quite fit that so we went a little slower.
"I think this group, the majority of them, have been with me for three years now. Most of them know what I expect so it's less questions and explaining and it's more so just sharpening things we want to get done."
WRESTLING
The only Raider back in the fold from a year ago who placed at the Class AA state tournament was then junior 175-pounder Wyatt Nichols, who is expected back in the same weight class for head coach Wayne Jarvis.
Senior 150-pounder Tommy Evans, who was a qualifier at 126 two years ago, is back after missing last season with a knee injury.
"We're glad to have him back," said Jarvis, whose Raiders finished 10th in their last year of Class AA as they've now been placed in the new Division II. "Division II you got some quality at the top.
"DII is going to be loaded. It's much harder in a lot of ways. We'd be better ahead if we moved to Division I so we could have a better chance to qualify for kids. Some of these regions in DI only have five or six kids total."
Joining Nichols and Evans in the senior class are expected starters Nick Burnside at 157 and heavyweight Hogan Greathouse.
The junior class should feature starters in Noah Pena (106), David Rowe (113), Mack Webb (165) and Leo Rogers (190) as Bentley Browning and Isaiah Williams are also both heavyweights.
"We're looking for some stuff from some of our youngsters," added the coach, who has probable starters in the sophomore class with Maddox Mitchell (120), Wattson Nichols (132) and Krystian Hall (138) with freshmen nods going to Landon Williams (126), Brycen Craft (144), Darren Hall (138/144) and Mark Callow (215).
"Wyatt Nichols, Mack Webb, those guys kind of set the tone, particularly Wyatt. Wattson is going to be one of our key kids in the lower weight."
Webb, though, has been nursing a preseason injury and Greathouse also has been dealing with football injuries.
"If we can keep ourselves healthy and keep getting better I think we're going to be fine," said Jarvis, who will have three girls competing in sophomore Halle Lawson (132) along with freshmen Aliza Bratton (113) and Holly Conrad (126).
"We got a good schedule, I think, for us and we open up Saturday at home in the Garry Bender Cup."