Boys Small-School Division set for interesting season

By AARON MURRAY\Daily Journal Sports Writer

Four coaches will now be in their second year, and a second year will mean a better understanding of not only their own teams but also their opponents during the season. Just like every year, there will be shoes to fill, but which teams will take their games to the next level?

Following an undefeated conference season in 2005 the West County Bulldogs hope to repeat after graduating nine of their 16 players. The Bulldogs will also look to take the team deeper into the post season after ending the year with a loss to St. Pius last year.

Included in the nine that graduated were four of the Bulldogs top scorers. Brandon Dane, Sam Luebbers, Jordan Miller, and Chris Mosier all ended the season with triple digits for total points over the season.

Returning seniors include Kent Christopher, Eddie Dowd, Jeff Fortner, and James Whitehead. Dowd was the only player that saw the floor much, but all four will have to step up and become leaders this season.

In his fourth year, head coach Chad Mills said, “We have some good young talent returning,” and included are two players that will most likely start. Terry Moore and Corey Whelehon. Both players earned plenty of playing time last year when Whelehon scored 167 points and Moore scored 90 points as sophomores.

“As young as we are we will just try to win the next game,” said Mills, “our goal is to win our conference, and hopefully go on and continue to win from there.”

As head coach Mike Key returns for his second year, the Arcadia Valley Tigers are looking to improve with another winning season in 2006. The Tigers finished last year with a 7-3 record in conference and a 14-12 record overall after losing to the Grandview Eagles to end the season.

They graduated Nick Benz, Jack Franklin, Abe Warren, and Jake Yarbrough. Two of the four players, Franklin and Warren, were their top two scorers in 2006. Franklin finished the year with 339 points, 59 assists, and 59 steals while Warren finished with 217 points. Yarbrough and Benz both led the team in rebounds with 229 and 195 respectively.

Tell Pryor, Logan Smith, and Justin Sutton will be the three returning as seniors to lead the team. All three appeared in almost every game for the Tigers last season, and will see just as much action this season. Junior Dereck Wilson will also see the court quite a bit more as he finished fourth in total points scored for the Tigers last year at 164.

“Hopefully we will improve on our winning record a bit after losing four of our five starters last year,” Key said. Key also mentioned five players that will take the step up from junior varsity to varsity after after having a real strong 16-4 season last year.

In his third year as head coach, Eric Thompson and the Valley of Caledonia Vikings will have their work cut out for them following the 14-13 regular season record and a 7-3 conference record from last year.

Last year the one team that the Vikings could not defeat were the conference champs out of West County, and after graduating seven seniors it will be difficult to not only try to pull out a win against West County, but also end with a 7-3 once again this season.

Luckily the Vikings will have 6'3” First-Team, All-Conference Aaron Dickey and Honorable-Mention, All-Conference Tony Radford trying to lead their teams to another successful season.

The Valle Catholic Warriors are likely to turn their record around in 2006 as Kyle Marquart starts his second season as head coach. Last year the Warriors went 6-20, but nearly grabbed a .500 season in conference at 4-6.

Although Valle Catholic graduated four players last year, four leading scorers will still be returning. Kyle Basler, Nathan Grass, Adam Hermann, and Garrett Meyer are all seniors that will return with the Warriors that had 100+ points last season, and two of which averaged over seven points per game.

Others returning include seniors Ryan Dalton and John Laird along with four juniors and one sophomore.

With one more year of experience, this year's senior class could give the Warriors a winning record in conference, and in the regular season. It will take hard work, but senior leadership matched with skill could make the Valle Catholic Warriors a tough team to beat this season.

Second year head coach Jamie Bell and the Bismarck Indians will be coming off of a very rough season. After last years 4-21, the Indians will try to pull together a winning season in 2006. Bismarck will also try to make large strides in conference play after going 2-8.

Bismarck graduated nine players last year, but will still have eleven players looking to come back in search of a winning record.

Matt Dunlap, Mike Franklin, Steve Gettinger, Adam Kell, Tim Lincoln, and Josh Shelton will be returning as seniors for the Indians. Dunlap and Franklin both had good years with Bismarck in 2005 and will look to lead their team to a few more victories.

One letter says it all, “L”. The Kingston Cougars could not find themselves anywhere near the winning end of a game last season, but this year they hope to end their losing streak.

Head coach Ethan Evans will try to guide the team to their first win in over three seasons as this year's team will start off with a 70-game losing streak. The Cougars struggled in nearly every one of their 23 games last season, being blown out by 20 or more points each time.

The good news is Kingston will have their top two scorers back this season. Larry Lemons who scored 228 points for the Cougars and Brandon Merseal who ended with 178 will both return and try to lead a team that hopes to have a better year. Hopefully experience will help out and finally give the Cougars some hope this season.