Tigers prepare to surprise

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

The St. Regis Tigers are getting their claws sharpened for this year's basketball season and preparing to surprise some of the teams they played last year.

"I think it's going to be an interesting year," said Tigers Head Coach Dan Park.

There are 11 players on the Tigers team this year, 9 of which are returning from last year's season.

"It's making stuff easier in practice. We're not having to go over everything right from the beginning," Park said

Park said that height may be an issue for the Tigers again this season.

"They're fairly athletic, but again we're not real tall," said Park.

The Tigers had a 0 - 20 season last year and suffered largely because their team was much shorter than many others in the league and could not compete with taller players.

"We're going to try to play a little bit more physical than we have in the past," Park said.

While he would not go into full detail about the team's plans to shake things up this season Park did say that he plans to get more aggressive with the team's rebounding aspirations.

"We need to be a little more physical inside. I fee like we didn't want the ball enough and didn't go after enough rebounds. Loose balls, we're pretty good at going for those but rebounding wise," Park said.

With his shorter team Park said he plans to use some of his heavier and larger players to push in under the basket for rebounds rather than trying to out-jump and out-play taller guys on the court.

"With a bigger team you've got to get in there and try and get better position and try and hold it and get the ball early rather than trying to get in there and out-jump those big guys." Park said.

The Tigers will play their first game of the season against Hot Springs on Dec. 9 and will host the Tiger Tail Tournament in St. Regis on Dec. 13 with Superior, Mullan and Lakeside.

The team has been running lots of basic drills and conditioning, but Park said that this early in the season there is no real way to prepare specifically for their fast-approaching game against Hot Springs.

"People move in and out so you're never really sure what they're going to have," Park said.

Park said that the team will not get to utilize Willy Roper, who promises to be one of the team's leading scorers this season, in the first game of the season because he was ejected from the Tigers last football game of the season for a late hit.

While not having Roper may affect their game plan, Park said that unlike last year he plans to really utilize the whole team and get the entire Tigers line scoring.

Last year senior Nate Cantrell-Field led the team in scoring, but with him gone Park said they would not be leaning on any crutch players this season.

"Last year we had to rely on Nate for a lot of our points. I mean, Willy's a good scorer but with what we're going to be doing this year I think we'll be getting a lot of points from our other players," Park said. "We're going to have key players of course but I think up and down the line we're going to have a lot of guys that can contribute."

The Tigers have been running lots of drills and working to get into shape, practicing even over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"Having that early game pretty much makes us practice over the holidays," Park said.

Park said that with the team's new game plan this season he expects to see some great things out of the Tigers.

"When they win a game they'll feel it, and they'll fit in better. I think we have a good team concept for this year," Park said. "I'm looking forward to it."