Superior boys get ready for season
The Superior boys won’t play
their first game of the basketball season until Dec. 10, but
practice got underway on Monday, Nov. 22. Coach Bajin Smith said
that the team has 24 players out this season, ranging from seniors
to freshmen. Smith said he thinks the team will have some good
leadership from this year’s seniors.
“We’ve got RJ Frederick coming back as
a senior and Tanner Coon coming back as a senior,” Smith said.
“We’ve also got Roman and Kenley Zylawy who are seniors also. I
think we got some great senior leadership coming up this year.”
Smith also mentioned Aaron Lowman, a
new kid from Washington, who he believes will be a great addition
to the team. He said they’ve got a good ball player in Daylon Kuhl,
who is returning as a junior, and a good bunch of sophomores
including Billy Smith and Adam Kay. Smith also mentioned that Ryan
Bowers is returning to the team plays well below the hoop.
“This year, were coming back after not
having a good season last year,” Smith said. “We struggled a bit
and this season we’re trying to get back to the basics and build
the team up. I think it’s going to take a while, but it looks real
positive.”
Smith said that they are building on a
new offense and defense. He said that the team will run a high
intensity defensive effort whether it is man-to-man or zone.
“I want to keep it simple, but I want
to keep the intensity level way up,” Smith said. “I think we’ll run
a lot of traps and try to confuse the offense of other teams, but
again we want it to be simple.”
He said that there’s not a lot of
height, though there is some. He said that they will run a pretty
fast offense and try to keep the kids moving and spread out. He
said that also on the offensive end they want to be patient and
wait for good shots.
“One of the weaknesses I think we have
is moving the ball down the court,” Smith said. “But we have some
good ball handlers who are sophomores.”
The boys will play Charlo on Dec. 10
and Smith said they will be a tough team right off thebat with a
fast offense that will press them a bit.
“They’ll be tough and they’ll be fast,”
he said.
Smith that that the team’s biggest goal
for the season is to stay positive and he wants the kids to figure
out where they want to be at the end of the year.
“With just two wins last year, we have
a lot of rebuilding to do,” Smith said. “We have some fundamentals
to weed through and I just want to keep the kids positive and make
it fun for them. The disadvantage is sometimes having fun is
winning, but we want to try and peak at the right time and that’d
be districts and divisionals.”
Smith said that the team is in a tough
conference and will have their work cut out for them this season.
Still, he said they are happy to be out playing on the courts.
“We’re excited. We have great older
players, but we have a lot of work to do. After the first couple of
practices, we’re excited about what we might do this season,” Smith
said.