11-4 Basketball Section

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JOHNSON COUNTY

BASKETBALL 2012

ALVARADO - BURLESON - CENTENNIAL CLEBURN

GODLEY GRANDVIEW - JOSHUA - KEENE - RIO VIST

A special supplement to the Cleburne Times-Review


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Page 7

By Laura [email protected]

The Burleson girls basketball

team is shifting its focus to stay-ing healthy and using its experi-ence to push into the postseasonfor the rst time since 2010.

The Lady Elks were one gameshy of a chance at the playoffs inDistrict 7-4A last season. Burle-son nished 5-7 in district playand lost its nal regular seasongame to Crowley by one point.Had the Lady Elks won, bothBurleson and Crowley wouldhave nished district at 6-6 and

been forced into a tiebreakergame for the nal playoff spot.That season nale for the

Lady Elks ended a tough yearmarred by injuries, Head CoachRusty East said.

From that point, it was down-hill, he said. Were a bit moreexperienced now, but were beatup. Mackenzie [Hailey] had atorn PCL, Morgan [Schwarz] toreher ACL and Lindsay [Bryan] hassomething in her knee, too.

Burleson went 18-14 overall

in the 2011-12 season with threefreshmen on the varsity roster,but East said his teams experi-ence will help give them a boostthis time around.

When you put freshmen atthe varsity level, they learn thespeed of the game and have a bet-ter understanding of what we ex-pect from them, he said. Thosethree freshmen are all startingnow. They [have] a lot of game-time experience, and you cantteach that.

Hailey averaged 15 points andeight rebounds last season, whichearned her the Newcomer of theYear accolade in District 7-4A.Bryan, who was also a freshmanlast season, was named to secondteam all-district.

East has six returning playerson this years squad, includingtwo four-year varsity seniors.

We have three more fresh-men this year. I think we havethe tools to make a run at the dis-

trict title, but we want to makeplayoffs rst. Since we were onegame out last year, a reasonablegoal would be to make the post-

season, and the exceptional goalwould be to win district, Eastsaid. Its such a long season andstaying healthy has always beena problem.

An injury-free roster will helpthe team make strides in the newDistrict 8-4A, East said.

The head coach has been atBurleson for six years and hadfour top players and leading scor-ers tear their ACLs in his timewith the Lady Elks.

The deal with us is stayinghealthy because we dont have alot of depth, he said. If we canstay healthy, weve been pickedto win district in the TexPrepsBasketball magazine. That justmeans we have a target on ourbacks. Were big, but well justhave to see what happens. If wecan stay healthy, we can make arun this year.

East highlighted determi-nation as one of Burlesonsstrengths this season.

They really trust the stuffwe do. Theyre comfortable withit. We dont complicate things.They respond to me, and theybuy into what Im saying, hesaid. Theyre good kids andthey have a drive to want to win.When I got here, the players saidthey just want to have fun andplay basketball. Well, I want tohave fun by winning. All we didwas make some structure and dis-cipline. When I took over, theywere 4-24.

The formation of BurlesonCentennial that split the LadyElks team in two hurt Easts ros-ter, he said.

Looking at Centennial, thoseseniors over there were my fresh-men. Youre trying to beat play-ers you taught, East said.

Nonetheless, East and theLady Elks are preparing for acompetitive district where he

Lady Elks ready to execute

on strengths, potential

See LADY ELKS, Page 22


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Page 8

By Laura [email protected]

The Centennial boys basket-ball team is practicing relent-lessly to be prepared for some

major changes and challenges inits upcoming season.

The Spartans biggest chal-lenge will be moving up to4A with its rst senior class inschool history.

Centennial nished its 2011-12 season at 16-15 overall and6-4 in District 7-3A. The Spar-tans nished second in districtand earned their rst-ever play-off win in the bidistrict round ofplayoffs against Kennedale.

Abilene Wylie knocked Cen-tennial out of the postseason inthe area round, but Centennialstill made an impression witha bidistrict championship in its

rst year of varsity competition.The district realignment af-

ter last season puts Centennialin District 8-4A with Burleson,Cleburne, Crowley, Evermanand Joshua, which were all in

District 7-4A last year. Wacoand Waco University remainedin 8-4A as the districts seventhand eighth schools.

Now, the Spartans must read-just as a newcomer to 4A play.

Its a big step up to 4A,Head Coach Jeff Carroll said.Its going to be a big change forus and a big adjustment overall.Our kids have to change the ath-leticism of the district. We haveto make sure we understand

that there is a big jump, and wehave to be prepared to make thatjump.

Carrolls roster lists 11 re-turning varsity players, includ-

ing two all-district selectionsand three All-Johnson Countyathletes.

Seniors Doug Hopkins andGarrett Easterling made rstteam all-district in 7-3A last

season and All-Johnson County.Curtis Amos, another All-John-son County selection, was dis-trict newcomer of the year.

Its going to be a tough dis-trict and a tough battle everynight, Carroll said. Every teamin our district can win any givennight that they play. This teamreally has to show up and playevery night.

To be successful, Carroll saidhis team has to improve on ev-

ery aspect of the game to matchup to the competitiveness of 4Aplay.

The big key for us is beingable to play at the same pace.

The pace of the game is going tobe a lot faster, and we just haveto be prepared for it, he said.

The Spartans are also work-ing on their defense and how todefend the ball at the faster pace

We have to be able to defendat a higher rate of speed. Its going to be difcult, and some-thing we need to get used to,Carroll said.

Centennial opens its seasonat home against Fort Worth Polyon Nov. 13. The Spartans tipoff in District 8-4A play againsCrowley at home on Dec. 18.

The teams ultimate goalCarroll said, is to deliver itsbest game of basketball at every

game to stay prepared for what-ever comes.We just need to play as hard

as we can every single night tobe successful, he said.

Spartans focusing on improving competitiveness in 4A

Laura Zamora/CTR

Left: Centennial Coach Jeff Carroll talks to his team during the teams first week of practice. Right: The Spartans work on the pick androll. Centennial makes the move from 3A to 4A this season.


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Page 10

By A.J. [email protected]

The Cleburne boys basketballprogram is going back to the ba-sics and becoming a fundamen-tally sound team under new headcoach Jimmy Littleton.

I really believe the kids havebrought in to what were teach-ing them, Littleton said. Werea fundamental basketball team:shooting, dribbling, defensively.Theyre really coming around.Our defense will be far ahead ofour offense to start the seasonand then our offense will catchup later. Youve got to play greatdefense to be a championship-caliber team.

Littleton is facing the chal-lenge of essentially coachingtwo different teams consideringthe number of players who areexpected to join the team afterfootball season is over.

Right now, Littleton is work-ing with players like Ryan Kirk,Dominic Lazano, Colin Garcia,Deion Clark and several others.

But once the Yellow Jacket foot-ball season is over, Littleton saidplayers like Khalil Hall, Kamer-on Pickett, Kibo Grant, Al Bay-lor, Brezuan Miller and CannonMartyniuk will make the transi-tion to basketball.

Were going to have somequickness and athleticism,Littleton said. I think thats go-ing to help us tremendously. Iwant the football to win the statechampionship and then basket-ball will be there when theyre

done. Its hard getting this thinggoing when youre missing thatmany good players. Im new andtheyre new and when they comeout, well start all over again.Our kids are still learning whatIm doing and theyve adjustedextremely well.

We got guys in there rightnow that were trying to puttogether to start the year andtheyre our team right now. Butthings will change drastically

when the restof the playerscome over fromfootball.

The YellowJacket basket-ball programhas had its fair

share of ups anddowns, mostlydowns, since the

Jeff Cody era came to an end,but Littleton brings 32 years ofcoaching experience and comesfrom a basketball tradition richin history. Littletons father,James, is a Texas High SchoolCoaches Hall of Famer. Theelder Littleton won three statetitles and went to the state tour-nament 13 times in 23 years at

San Antonio South San.The Jackets new commander

has had his fair share of successin his own right, as hes madethe playoffs everywhere he hasbeen, including stops at San An-tonio South San, San AntonioRoosevelt and New Caney.

Littleton preaches fundamen-tals and defense nonstop, and hesaid he believes that is what thegame of basketball is all about.While he has been in Cleburnefor only a few months and hasnthad his whole arsenal of play-ers to work with yet, he said theplayers he does have right nowhave started to pick up his sys-tems.

Were a very aggressive,deny-the-ball, man-to-man,

half-court, up-in-your-face kindof intense defensive team,Littleton said with passion

[The defense] has picked uptremendously. Its just like withanything else. When you learnsomething the rst time, yourenot good at it, but the more youdo it you get better and theyrestarting to pick it up. Our prog-ress has really picked up.

Offensively, Littleton saidtheyll be a continuity basketbalteam. He runs three guards withtwo low posts and he likes toplay inside-out.

Ive usually had kids whoare over 6-5 at the programs Ivebeen associated with, Littletonsaid. But right now, our tallesplayer is 6-2. With the style ofball well play here, well push iup. We like to fastbreak and thenit ows directly into our offenseBut we dont just push it upthe oor and shoot quick shotsWere a more ball-control team.

Even though the Jackets havestruggled overall, especially indistrict play, in recent years, tha

doesnt sway Littletons opinionof Cleburne being a playoff teamthis year.

I think right now if we improve every day and put togetherthe mixture of kids coming fromfootball and have some goodconnection there, I think werea playoff contending team and Ihonestly believe that, he said. believe that wholeheartedly. Imnot saying were going to winthe district title this year. Is thaour goal? Most denitely. Thats

our main goal, and to make theplayoffs and see how far we cango from there.

But this group is young andfundamentals have not been herethe past few years. ... Were ex-cited about the season startingbut were excited every day toget on the court and practice andget better at what were doing.

The Jackets open the seasonat 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 againstFort Worth Southwest Christian

Under new leadership, Jackets hopeto restore rich basketball tradition

David Beans/Special to the CTR

Kameron Pickett will be one of many players new coach JimmyLittleton will depend on to make an impact in 2012.

Jimmy

Littleton


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The Lady Jackets enter theirsecond year with Coach JamieCalahan, and the one word Cala-han is instilling in his team is ...team.

This is what I always preachis to play as a team, Calahansaid. Its going to take any sin-gle one of us at any point. I am abig believer in team. I think thebiggest name on the team is Lady

Jackets, and thats what I preachto them. Were going to win as ateam and lose as a team. It takesall of us. Our biggest thing thatwere going to work on and ourbiggest key this season will beplaying as a team. Were oneheartbeat and one unit.

Cleburne enters the 2012campaign coming off a 2-12 re-cord in District 7-4A play lastseason, and Calahan said thenewly aligned District 8-4A iswide open this year.

One thing about this districtin basketball this year is anygiven night you can beat some-body and any given night you canlose to somebody, Calahan said.I dont think theres a clear-cutfavorite. I think its a very toughdistrict, and I think its tough allthe way across the board. Youvegot to bring your A game everynight because if you dont anyteam can beat you. It should bevery fun and interesting year.

One of the keys to the LadyJackets having a successful sea-son is avoiding the injury bug,something that plagued the teamlast season in Calahans rst sea-son.

It was a very tough district,Calahan said. We had injuries allyear last year. I had about threeor four people out every game.We had so many injuries it wascrazy. Being my rst year as thehead coach and to go through thatmany injuries [was tough].

The Lady Jackets will be

an experienced group in 2012as Calahan returns seven start-ers from last years varsity unit.Five of those players have startedgames in their careers, but withso many injuries, they were con-sidered spot starts.

Juniors Bria McCulloughand Courtney Jeffcoat were all-district performers for the LadyJackets in 2011, and Calahan ex-pects big things out of them thisyear as well.

They both had really goodyears last year, Calahan said.Theyll both carry some of theload this season.

Junior Avery Hough, seniorHillary King, junior Alli Suitt andsophomore Jasline Chandler alsoreturn for Cleburne.

Calahan said that TorameshiaRobinson, Aastyshia Howard,Kennedy Foster and WhitneyMorgan will also play key rolesfor the Lady Jackets. And Calah-an said everyone will be counted

on.With the way we play, every-

bodys going to play a lot, Cala-han said. Were going to be deepbecause we run so much thatweve got to be in shape. Werevery diversied as far as offense.Defensively we run a man-to-man. It can be full court, it canbe half court. It varies. We run apress depending on the team weplay. Our offense and transitiongame is fast-paced. We want toget up the court. Were going tobe a running team.

I think our defense is goingto be our biggest strength. I thinkwell be pretty good defensively.Bria does a really good on oppos-ing teams point guards and therest of them read passing lanesreally well. I think the defensecan be our biggest strength. Ithink getting the ball and scor-ing quickly can be one of our

Lady Jacketsready to make aplayof run

See CLEBURNE, Page 23


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While the Godley Wildcatsare seemingly in a transitionalseason this year as they onlyreturn two players with varsityexperience, Coach Keith McFar-land said their goal is to still aimfor a district championship andthe playoffs.

Were going to be reallyyoung, McFarland said. Weregoing to have two freshmen, asophomore and a junior that will

see signicant minutes this sea-son.

The two returning varsityplayers from last years team thatwent 21-9 overall and 10-4 indistrict play are Trace Brown andDrew Benge. The Wildcats lostin the second round to Melissa in2011.

Were going to just try todepend on those two seniors,said McFarland, entering his sec-ond year at Godley and 13th asa coach overall. Were going

to have a lot of young players.Its good for the future, but itsa learning process, for sure, forthose kids this year.

Collin Douglas and KyleSamples will be two other play-ers McFarland said he would relyon heavily.

Godley lost all-region per-former Kolby Brown, all-districtplayers Riley Davis and KolbeFoster and the fourth starter fromlast years team, Canyon Wil-

liams.With such talent moved on

and with a young and inexperi-enced roster, the Wildcats willcertainly face their fair share ofadversity this season, especiallyearly on.

Were going to play a reallytough nondistrict schedule andhope it pays off in the long run,McFarland said.

Some coaches like to scheduletough nondistrict opponents andhope that lessons learned againstquality teams will help a team

grow up and come together mo-reso than playing a softer sched-ule. That is what McFarland ishoping will be the case for hisyoung Wildcats this season.

Despite the challenges facingGodley entering their campaign,McFarland is condent they cancompete for a district champion-ship and at least a playoff berth.

We moved out of a districtthat had two regional power-houses in brock and peaster, hesaid. Moving out of that district

will help us. Im also countingon being able to get the footballkids going fast once theyre outof football and us competing hardin nondistrict. Our goal this yearis going to be to win a districttitle. Whether we can do that ornot, I dont know. Compared tolast year, the district is a lot morebalanced. That makes me feelbetter.

Godley opens the season at 7p.m. on Nov. 19 against Ferris.

Despite inexperienced roster,

Wildcats aim is still district title

Mason Irvin/Courtesy photo

Godleys Drew Benge will be one of only two returning playerswith varsity experience for the Wildcats in 2012.


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Coach Todd Jarrell enters hisninth year as head coach of theGrandview boys basketball pro-gram, and the Zebras are lookingto redeem themselves after a dis-appointing end to the season lastyear where they narrowly missedthe playoffs.

We were one game short ofmaking it last year and Im hop-ing that that will leave a strongdesire on the guys that are return-ing to push us to that one or twoextra wins this year to get into theplayoffs, Jarrell said. Hopeful-ly well have a chance to ght fora district championship.

Grandview nished the sea-son at 13-12 last year and 9-5in district. The Zebras made theplayoffs two years ago. Grand-view hasnt won a district titlesince 2002.

The Zebras will have a ratheryoung team this season, as onlyfour players return from last

years varsity squad, and onlytwo of those were starters Ryan Breton and Stephen Stew-art, both of whom were rst-teamall district performers and sec-ond-team all county.

As far as the two returningstarters, theyre both really goodoutside shooters, Jarrell said.They both can put the ball onthe oor and make things hap-pen. I wouldnt say theyre mir-ror images of each other but theirscoring averages are very similar.

They both averaged about 14points per game. On some nights,especially down the stretch, itwould be one or the other, butwere hoping to have both ofthose two ring on the same cyl-inders at the same time this year.

The other two returners areLaBroyeah Jackson and JordyMassey.

[Jackson] really came on forus last year, Jarrell said. Hebrings a lot of energy. Hes a very

long and lanky guy who blocksshots and gets rebounds for us. Ithink as far as our defensive stop-per type kid, hell be able to getout there and do things for us de-fensively.

While Grandview only hasfour players with varsity experi-ence returning from last yearsteam, the Zebras will have anoth-er key player Jamon Martinez who brings varsity experience,

but from another program.Hes got some varsity experi-

ence coming over from the Waxa-hachie program, Jarrell said.Ive got some sophomores and

juniors who Im hoping can stepup and ll a role. From what Iveseen from Jamon, hes got a nicegame thatll help complement therest of the team. Hopefully stuffwill come together fairly quick-ly after they get out of football.

Were hoping to score in the mid60s on a consistent basis.

The Zebras biggest strengththis season will be the play otheir guards, but with that, theirbiggest weakness will be a lackof size.

Our guards have a lot of ex-perience, Jarrell said. Were apretty guard-heavy team. I thinkwell be able to spread people ouand have a bunch of ballhandlerson the oor. Weve got a coupleof guys that are very good ball-handlers and very good shootersDown low, I dont know howmuch well have.

Due to the lack of size, Jarrelsaid he plans on running a ex of-fense with likely four guards onthe court most of the time.

Since we have so manyguards on the oor, in the exyou end up playing every spoon the oor, he said. Thatswhat well do if we have to setup and run an offense. Hopefullywe can pull some boards and bea running team. Hopefully we

can generate some steals. Wevealways been a pressing team defensively. That helps generatesteals and gets easy baskets offthe press.

Defensively, the Zebras wilthrow several different looksat opponents depending on thematchup, including differenzones and man-to-man.

With so much newness sur-rounding the Zebras, whether ibe due to a lack of experience orlack of familiarity amongst play

ers, Jarrell said the biggest key tothis season will be everyone ad-

justing to each other and chemistry coming together.

I think because we do havea lot of new people, that devel-oping chemistry and nding ouroles early is going to be key, hesaid. Sometimes thats real dif-cult when you hop into tourna-ment season and usually we end

Zebras eye return to postseason aftercoming up short last season

Grandview Yearbook Staff/Courtesy photo

Grandviews Ryan Breton (15) and Jordy Massey (41) are two of

four returning varsity players for the Zebras in 2012.

See ZEBRAS, Page 22


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The Lady Zebras are comingoff a 29-5 season in which theywere undefeated district cham-pions, and despite losing an all-state guard and all-county mostvaluable player in Raven Mc-Grath, Grandview Coach KevinPope said he expects a similarseason this year.

Everybody has to chip inand everybodys got to do a littlemore, Pope said. We dont ex-pect one person to step in and dowhat she did.

The Lady Zebras also graduat-ed standouts Melody Mayse andLyncon Tekell from last yearssquad, both of whom earned all-district and all-county honors aswell.

Despite losing three solidplayers, the expectations are stillhigh for the Grandview lady bas-ketball program in 2012, a teamthats made the playoffs for threestraight seasons. While Grand-

view lost a star player in Mc-Grath, something the Lady Ze-bras will be strong in this seasonis depth.

Weve got a bunch of kidsthat all have things they bringto the table, Pope said. Wevegot to gure out which ones aregoing to be varsity and whichones will be kids with varsity-level attributes that are going tobe on the JV getting another yearof experience. I dont feel likewe have just that one person that

were going to always go to likewhat its been the last couple ofyears. Were going to be a morebalanced team.

Seniors Kalani Basham,Harley Grifth, Taylor Russell,Alexis Wheeler and juniors Ri-ley Schindler and Krista Em-mons are all back from last yearsteam. Grandview also received atransfer from Arlington Martin insenior Alyssa Stanley.

With only two starters return-

ing from last year and a numberof new players at the varsity lev-el, Pope said one of the biggestkeys to Grandview having im-mediate success this season is todevelop chemistry quickly.

Pope said he didnt plan onchanging his offensive system orscheme to adjust to a new team.

Well keep doing the samebasic stuff offensively, he said.Were probably not going tochange a whole lot. Even withRaven last year, we didnt run alot of stuff for her. It wasnt alldesigned around one person.They were all three players thatopponents had to take into con-

sideration. When you lose threesenior guards of that caliber

thatll change the dynamics othe team.

But you hope those youngkids have learned coming upthrough the ranks and step intheir spots and everything contin-ues as is.

Losing those three senioguards of that caliber last yearwould be a blow to any programbut with the new talent movingup to varsity, Pope said the teamwill be stronger in one area thisseason compared to years past.

We wont be as guard oriented as we have been, Pope saidWeve got some forward-typekids that we feel like can helpThats probably the area werestronger this year than the pasthree years.

Weve got four forwardsnow, where usually weve puone forward on the oor withfour guards. We keep the oospread and try to use our quick-ness and basketball intelligence

But weve got some girls nowthat are 5-9 where most posts inthe past were 5-7 and smaller.

Grandview faces a tougherroad in district play this seasona year after going unbeaten inleague play, and Pope said heknows itll be a challenge.

Theres going to be a lot oparity. Its going to be a close district race.

The Lady Zebras open theiseason at 5 p.m. on Tuesday atLancaster against Red Oak Life.

Expectations high for Lady Zebras,despite losing several key players

Courtesy photo

Grandview will rely on seniors Kalani Basham, center, and HarleyGriffith (21), among others, to replace the production Raven Mc-Grath, Melody Mayse and Lyncon Tekell had last season.


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The Joshua Owls basketballprogram is hoping to follow inthe footsteps of the Lady Owlsvolleyball program and quicklyturn a rough season one year intoa winning, playoff-bound seasonthe following. And the Owls willlook to do that under new leader-ship in the form of Jeff Hudak.

We really want to get a win-ning mentality built, Hudaksaid. I think from the little bit ofresearch Ive done, I dont thinktheyve won a district game infour years at least. Im trying toget them to understand what ittakes to win and the effort it takesto be a winner. I really want tobuild that mentality here quick-ly.

The Owls are coming off a3-24 season last year and didntwin one district contest. Similarlyto Joshuas volleyball history, theOwls last playoff appearance inboys basketball is unknown. Forthe Owls to turn from their los-

ing ways, Hudak said they needto start on the defensive end ofthe court.

Were going to start on thedefensive end rst, he said. Icome from a very rich traditionof defense-rst as a player atBirdville, so thats what I wantto bring to Joshua also. I told theguys, Youve got to be knownfor something, and I want peopleto say that Joshua can play de-fense and can shoot the ball.

The Owls surrendered just

over 60 points per game lastseason, while scoring only 37.5points per game.

Hudak will have four return-ers from last years varsity teamto work with and one starter. Ty-ler Wright, James Woodley andGarrett Hoffman look to lead theteam this season on the court forHudak, who began his tenure atJoshua in the spring, somethinghe said was a big help in gettingthings rolling.

[Practice has] gone reallywell, he said. The kids hereare great. Theyre hard-workingkids. I couldnt ask for betterkids. Its actually been a prettysmooth transition. Since I was

able to come in the spring, thatshelped. And weve worked allsummer. So thats made it a fairlyeasy transition. Now were wait-ing for football guys to come outto complete that transition.

The Owls went 5-3 in summerleague ball and the fall leaguewas 3-2. While its a small sam-ple size, the 8-5 combined recordin those two leagues is twice asmany wins that the Owls record-ed all of last season, and Hudak

said he believes its a start.Theyre starting to see a little

fruits of their labor, Hudak said.Some of the stuff were doing isstarting to work. Once they g-ure it out a little more, itll click

for them and well be successful.Weve just got to get over thatinitial hump and get those rstfew victories under our belt.

Joshua will be a senior-ladenteam this year as Hudak expectsto have 10 seniors on the varsityafter football is over. Along withthe 10 seniors, hell have two

juniors and one sophomore toround out his roster.

Coming off a season whereyou lose 21 more games than

you won, one might not expect aplayoff berth to be on the teamsmind, but Hudak said that is exactly whats on the minds of himself and his Owls.

Our short-term goals are to

get district victories, Hudaksaid. Our main goal is alwaysplayoffs. We want to have thalofty goal of making the playoffsIve told them from day one thaI think we can make the playoffsFor a lot of people they kind olook at me crazy when I say thatbut I think we can be a playoffteam.

Joshua opens the season a7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 against Hudaks alma mater, Birdville.

New head coach looks to bring winning

attitude to struggling Owls program

A.J. Crisp/CTR

New coach Jeff Hudak, right, hopes to instill a defensive mindset in a Joshua boys basketball pro-gram that hasnt won a district game in more than four years.


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The Keene Chargers are in the midst of animpressive string of playoff runs dating backto the 2003 season, and while many teamsacross the region would be satised with atrack record of that, Coach Jason Hill said histeam is striving to be the best team Keene hasever had this season.

Some of our team goals weve talkedabout is, rst of all, we want to win a districtchampionship, Hill said. Another goal is toget the most wins in school history and focuson getting a lot of wins this year. We want tomake a good playoff run. The past two yearsweve been knocked out the rst round.

The single-season record for wins atKeene is 26. Hill said this team can surpass

that mark. Despite making the playoffs ninestraight seasons, Keene hasnt won a districttitle since 2006.

Keene returns several players with varsityexperience, including senior Manuel Gonza-lez, senior Angel Ortiz, senior Keith Hadley,

senior Brian Foley and sophomore RickyHadley.

Gonzalez led the region in scoring lastyear for the Chargers, and Hill, entering his14th season at Keene, expects Gonzalez to notonly repeat that feat, but also be a playmakerand get others involved.

Manuel Gonzalez led our district and re-gion in scoring last year, Hill said. Hes hada lot of success scoring. This year, I want himto continue that but also to set up more playsfor other people. Ive got more weapons thisyear than I had last year as far as having guyswho can score around the rim and around theperimeter.

For a team that nished last season witha 22-13 record, Hill said having so many re-turning players with varsity experience willbe just another reason why the Chargers can

have a successful season.My expectations for my seniors are, rstis to provide some leadership, Hill said.Theyll be able to be an extension of me onand off the court and be able to get the youngguys to buy into our system and the program.

Along with the experience, Hill said theteams other strengths are depth and endur-ance.

I think one of our main strengths is in ournumbers, Hill said. I feel condent in beingable to put 12 guys on the oor who can makeplays for us. We have strength in numbersOur conditioning is a strength for us, as wellOur kids run in cross country, so weve beenrunning since August. Well try to run teamsdown and get to their bench. Our skillset is toour advantage because we work on basketbalfor the rst three months of the year since wedont have a football program.

With their endurance being a teamstrength, the Chargers will look to play to thaand be an up-and-down the court team.

Were going to try to push the ball off omakes and misses, Hill said. We want to ge

the ball in quick and get out in transition andput a lot of pressure on the defense gettingback. That way we create some easy scoringopportunities for us in transition.

Keene opens the season at 7 p.m. on Nov13 against Peaster.

Keene coach puts lofty goals on 2012 season

A.J. Crisp/CTR

Keene Head Coach Jason Hill directs his Chargers in a fast-paced drill at a morning practice on Oct. 31. The Chargers are striving tobreak a school record for wins in a season this year.


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All teams have hurdles theyhave to clear to have a success-ful season, but the challengesfacing the Keene Lady Chargersyear in and year out are alwayslofty.

Coming off an 8-24 year inwhich the Lady Chargers went0-14 in district play, Coach Mi-chelle Connelly has four return-ing starters and seven returningvarsity players and hopes that

continuity will lead to morewins in 2012-13.We need to have more con-

dence in ourself, Connellysaid. We need to keep playinghard. Were really not horrible.People didnt beat us by a lotlast year. So were there, we justhave to step over that hurdle.Since we went 0-14 in districtlast year, I think wed like to tryand reach that .500 mark and tonot be the last team in district.Were looking to move closerto the middle. Its going to betough because of the districtwere in.

Keenes last playoff appear-ance was in 2007, and for theLady Chargers to have any shotat making a run for a postseasonberth, sophomore Zayda Gon-zalez will play a key role in that.

In 2011, Gonzalez scoredmore points herself as a fresh-man than the rest of theLady Chargers did combined

throughout the season, and shewill be their go-to player again.

Somebodys going to haveto step up and help her out,Connelly said. I think wellhave more help for her this yearthan last.

Several of those playersConnelly expects to step up in-cludes sophomore Navi Lopez,who will be the teams best de-fender, junior Jenna Bulles andsenior Amanda Langmos.

Two freshmen, JenniferGonzalez and Ebony Smith,

may also play a supporting rolefor the Lady Chargers.

The biggest problem Keenefaced last year was lack of ex-perience, lack of size and lackof leadership.

Keene only lost one playerfrom last years squad and ev-eryone coming back has onemore year of experience andplayers like Zayda Gonzalezshould be able to ll that lead-ership role.

But the lack of size is still aconcern for Connelly.Slow and short doesnt

not usually equal good thingsin basketball, Connelly said.Weve actually defended thepost really well, though. We justhave to shoot better from theoutside and keep working hardon defense. We need to be reallyaggressive on defense.

Connelly is in the unique po-sition of not only being the headgirls basketball coach, but alsothe head volleyball coach.

Its good because I canmake sure my kids are exposedto basketball but I want them todo good in both, she said. Itsgood because Im the one whogets to chose how the programswork.

[At Keene], we have so fewkids anyways that they all pret-ty much do everything. We onlyhave 26 girls in high school ath-letics. Tolar, who is 2A and just

moved up from 1A, has about50 girls.

The challenges facing Keeneathletics are always daunting,but with the right combinationof hard work and outstandingplay from their best player, theLady Chargers may be in posi-tion to have the turnaround sea-son Connelly is hoping for.

The Lady Chargers ofciallyopen the season at 6:30 p.m. onTuesday at Boyd.

Lady Chargers hope experiencedteam can lead to winning season

File photo

Keene will rely heavily on Zayda Gonzalez this season.

tensity and work ethic it requiresto try to compete at a high level,McKinney said. Weve nallygot that down and now wereable to teach some basketball andits carrying over. There are timesin practice that our JV even doesthings against our varsity thatmakes you say wow and wevenever had that before.

Alvarados blueprint for suc-cess begins and ends with a sti-ing defense that McKinney has

been implementing for the pastwo years.

I hope other teams feel pres-sure on them that they havenfelt in a while, like theyre play-ing ve on seven because wereying to the ball, she said. Offensively we want to take advantage of our opponents transitiondefense. We want a game that isfast-paced with a lot of defensivepressure.

Those games are fun towatch and more importantly, funto play.

Alvarado opens its season a8 p.m. on Tuesday against ForWorth Paschal.

alvaradocont. from pg. 5


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Page 20


The Rio Vista Eagles returnseven varsity players, includingall ve starters, to the hardwoodthis season and look to bettertheir 3-11 district record from ayear ago.

Obviously the goal is tomake the playoffs, Rio VistaCoach Ryan Cavazos said. Wewant to be competitive and playhard every night. We dont want

to have that drop off that we hadin district. We want to carry mo-mentum into district play.

Cavazos enters his third sea-son as the Eagles head basket-

ball coach. Rio Vista went 15-15overall a season ago but struggledin district play.

Ryan Jimison, Joseph Chavez,Kyle Leonhardt, James Angeleiand Tye Stulir will again be thestarters for Cavazos, and he ex-pects that unit to grow and knowwhat to expect this season afterhaving a year of starting togetherunder their belts from last year.

Ill be relying on them quitea bit this season, Cavazos said.We run a lot of motion stuff. We

have a lot of shooters. Were notvery big, so we like to get out andrun in transition and then shootfrom the outside.

Rio Vista also brings back

Dylan Howe and Kolton Leon-hardt.Jimison, Kyle Leonhardt and

Angelei were the Eagles topthree scorers this year. Newcom-er Joseph Chavez gures to helpcarry the scoring load this year,Cavazos said.

The Eagles lost one all-districtperformer from last season, TylerAllen, who was Cavazos sixthman off the bench, but he saidwith the new kids he has com-ing up and with the experienced

ones from last year, they shouldbe able to nd someone to ll Al-lens role.

The Eagles biggest strengththis season will be their speed

and quickness.Were pretty quick and prettyfast, Cavazos said. We get upand down the court really wellThis year I think one of our big-gest strengths is chemistry sincewe have all ve starters backThis will be Joseph and Ryansthird year on varsity. Thereshould be good chemistry and weshould play well together.

Our biggest weakness iswere kind of small. Well jushave to work harder on rebound

ing and well have to rebound asa team. You have to play harderwhen youre a smaller team.

Rio Vista tips off its season a7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 at Kopperl

Experience and continuity onRio Vistas side in 2012

Courtesy photos

Left: Ryan Jimison (2) led the Eagles in scoring last season andCoach Ryan Cavazos will look to Jimison and the other four returning starters to carry the load this year. Above: Kyle Leonhardalso started for Rio Vista in 2011.


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Rio Vista alum Tyler Adamsbegins his second season as theLady Eagles head coach, and theylook to rebound from a 2-12 cam-paign in district play last season.Despite that record, Adams saidthe Lady Eagles played toughthroughout the season and playedeveryone in district tough theyjust need to learn how to win.

Id like to nd a way to wina couple more district games thisyear, Adams said. The district

became more tough adding God-ley and Tolar. I understand theirtradition and how good they typi-cally are. But Id like to win a fewmore games and compete againstsome of the higher echelon teamssuch as Grandview, Godley, Tolarand Maypearl.

There was a couple gameslast year against some of the bet-ter teams last year where we werein it late and then the wheels felloff. We want to at least competewith the big dogs for four quar-

ters. Some of those games wehad chances to win and ended uplosing late in the fourth quarter,we want to beat those teams thisyear.

Adams returns three starters offlast seasons team, including all-district and all-county performerCaly Linton. Macy Moreno gar-nered all-district recognition lastyear as well.

When the games on the linewe want the ball in [Lintons]hands, Adams said. She is ourmost experienced, best decisionmaker, best offensive player thatwe have. We will be looking toher to carry us. Our best defensiveplayer is Macy Moreno. Well belooking to put her on the opposingteams best guard and be relying alot on her one-on-one to shut downthe other teams best player.

Im hoping that the ve wedo have returning, that last yearsexperience and some of the prob-lems we dealt with will help us

out as far as leadership goes. Westruggled last year with havingsome leadership and teamwork, so

weve been preaching that sinceday one and hopefully once we getthe volleyball girls in itll carry onover to them.

Rio Vista will also rely onplayers such as Megan Wilson,Haley Hennis, Krissa Reese, Jor-dan Long, Hannah Kamphaus andAlex Nichols this season.

As far as posts go, were go-ing to do that by committee. Me-gan Wilson is returning. Shes ath-letic. Well look for her to rebound

and get putbacks. Alex Nichols,shell be a good role player for usand another ball handler. A newaddition this year is Krissa Re-ese. Shes a senior and didnt playlast year. She will be another postplayer whos fairly athletic whocan get up and down the oor.Were excited to have her as partof the team.

Adams said the team strengthfor Rio Vista is in its size and ath-letic ability, but their weaknessesare fundamentals and a lack of

success.Last year, it was rough for

everybody trying to learn a newsystem and doing things differentthan somebody had for two yearsprior, Adams said. Already thisyear, just as far as terminology andknowing what to do, were better.I can call out an offense or defenseand they know what to get into so itspeeds up the ow of practice. Imnot having to do as much teachingand walkthrough. It makes every-thing ow a little easier.

While the Lady Eagles hadtheir struggles in district play,their nondistrict schedule last yearwas an area Adams hopes to seetremendous improvement in thisseason.

Im hoping to see a betterbrand of basketball, he said. Westruggled as far as playing togetherand actually putting a good brandof basketball that the girls andmyself were proud of putting outthere. Id like it to be more orga-

Lady Eagles look to turn close lossesin 2011 into wins this season

File photo

Rio Vistas Caly Linton, left, will be the go-to player again fo

Coach Tyler Adams and the Lady Eagles. Linton was an all-districand all-county performer in 2011.

nized, playing more together asa team, being more competitive.Some of the games in predistrictwe struggled to compete in. Idlike to be in every game going intothe last couple of minutes, at least,and just having a chance to win.Of course, we want to win more

games. Id like to have more winsgoing into district this season sowe have a little bit of momentumcarrying us into when the real parof the season starts.

Rio Vista opens its season a6:15 on Tuesday against RosebudLott.


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Page 23

strengths. Were pretty goodwhen we get out and run. I thinkthose two things are things weregoing to lean on heavily.

While the Lady Jackets

strength will be in their defenseand quickness, they are under-sized.

Were not very big so thatspart of the reason weve got torun, Calahan said. Were de-nitely not the tallest team in thedistrict, but were strong andtough and physical. Some of usplay bigger than we really are andthat helps. But size will hurt ussome so we hope are speed andquickness can help us.

Despite being a programthats only made one playoff ap-pearance in the past ve years,and has really struggled in thepast couple of seasons, Calahansaid his expectations for the Lady

Jackets are playoffs and a dis-trict title.

Our rst small goal is to getto the playoffs, he said. We talkabout winning the district cham-pionship, getting to the playoffsand having aspirations to get toAustin. If you dont talk about it,I dont think youll ever get there.We have high aspirations. The

girls have been working their tailsoff since last year. Theyve put alot of work into this year and theywant to see some results. I thinkits one of those things wherewe take it one game at a time.We want to win 20-plus games,which would be a big turnaroundfrom a team that won 10 last year.Our rst and foremost goal is wewant to win a district title. Its go-ing to be tough and its going tobe a battle. But if you dont putdistrict title in your goals, youllnever win one. That has to besomething you aspire for.

The Lady Jackets tip off theseason on at 7:30 p.m. on Tues-day against Arlington Sam Hous-

cleburnecont. from pg. 11

David Beans/Special to the CTR

Cleburnes Bria McCullough was an all-district performer in 2011and shell be a key player for Cleburne in 2012 as well.

es last year, he said. Wevehad enough teaching moments,and its time to learn from thoseand get some victories.

I think weve got a groupwho can do that for sure.Theyre a good, hard-workinggroup and their basketball IQgets better every day. We wantto get off to a fast start. We wantto get some wins and build somecondence.

Joshua returns nine playersfrom last years varsity team,four of those starters, and while

that was a weakness last year,it should prove to be a strengththis season as the girls have aseason of playing together un-der their belts, which wasnt thecase entering last year.

There was a aw last yearin that people werent familiarwith each other and now, peopleare familiar with each other andyoure seeing that transition inpractice and hopefully well seethat on the court, Gillham said.

And eight of the 10 varsityplayers that Gillham plans onsuiting up for the varsity LadyOwls have been practicing infall ball. Joshua will only havetwo players move over from the

volleyball team. Gillham saidthat having that many girls inoffseason basketball is great forcontinuity.

Its a great thing to be ableto have six or eight weeks tocommunicate and work withthose girls on a daily basis, hesaid.

Senior guard Katherine Mar-tin, junior wing Madison La-sater and sophomore wing KalieSchuman all earned honorablemention in all-district selections

last season.The Lady Owls graduated

Gin Wright, a rst team all-district selection who was theteams senior leader last yearwho led the team in rebounds,blocks and free throw percent-age.

Look for Joshua to play anaggressive style of man-to-mandefense and continue their im-provement from last year, whenthey allowed six less points per

game than the 2010 season.We must cut down on our

turnovers from last year and bemore aggressive offensively,Gillham said. We are goingto be undersized against every

team we play, so we all have toblock out together.While the Lady Owls went

through their fair share of strug-gles in recent years, Gillhamsaid he expects to be a playoffteam this year. Playing in a newdistrict will make that goal a lit-tle easier compared to the previ-ous district.

I think everybody who hasremained in that district us,Everman, Cleburne, Burleson when realignment came out,

we were like Oh man, thankgosh we dont have to playthem anymore, Gillham said.Thats not to say Centennialand the two Waco schools dontpresent their own challenges,because they do. But Summitand Seguin are different animalsaltogether. Those girls are theclass of the state. Either one ofthem would be favored almostany given year to win state andto have to play them four times

a year is a pretty tall order.I see a scenario where our

district is very, very wide openI think anybody can beat anybody on any given night. Weregoing to have to be sharp every

night because I think anybodycan beat us and we can beaanybody. Thats kind of excitingthough. Well see whos got thebest team.

One trait that is sure to helpJoshua break through and earnits rst playoff berth since 2008will be their competitive spiritsomething that Gillham feelsstrong about.

Ive got just as competitive girls as anybody and Im

just as competitive as anybody

and were hungry for [the play-offs], Gillham said. Its goingto be a dog ght and its goingto be very competitive in thisdistrict.

If you get one of the fourplayoff spots in the districtsyouve accomplished something because you have earnedit. Thats for sure.

The Lady Owls open the season at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 whenthey host Weatherford.

Joshuacont. from pg. 17


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