CHARLESTON — Summer basketball camps have been markedly different for the Alma Airedales from last summer to this summer.
Last year at this time, they were a young team with many unknowns. This year, they return five starters from a 5A-West Conference championship team.
“We just want the team to get better defensively,” Alma Coach Dominic Lincoln said. “That’s the biggest thing I want to pull from this summer.”
Alma was one of several local teams at a competitive team camp Monday at Charleston that also included junior high and junior varsity teams, which played all day in three different gymnasiums.
Seniors Camden Curd, Miles Kendrick, Israel Towns-Robinson and Carmani Smith along with junior Easton Boggs return after leading the Airedales to a 21-10 record, including 13-1 in the 5A-West.
“I just told the kids that communication and talking on defense and having a sense of urgency in every aspect is what we need to go to the next level,” Lincoln said. “If they give me energy and effort on defense and they communicate, I will let them have offense as far as how they want to play. I know we can score some points, but can we guard the teams that we need to guard and stop them enough to really be a great team? That’s the step that we want to take defensively. I’m just wanting us to get better on defense.”
Alma also attended a team camp at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith last week and will play each Tuesday in July in a summer league at Ozark that will host close to 20 teams. Lincoln doesn’t want to over work his Airedales, though.
“We’re just trying to play good competition but also don’t put too much on them because they’re a veteran team,” Lincoln said. “I don’t want them to be burned out once January comes. We’re trying to keep a good balance of getting reps and getting kids in.”
Seniors Matthew Rogers, Eddie Tate and Tyree McGill also return. All three contributed off the bench last year.
“We have to figure out our depth like we had last year and figure out the kids that we’re going to put out there and make plays for us,” Lincoln said. “I’m excited to have kids back. We’ve got a couple of new kids from our junior high team that also can help us.”
VAN BUREN
The Pointers will be a much different team from a year ago, which makes Monday’s summer camp and those like it important.
“Everybody on this team is trying to fill a new role, everybody,” Van Buren Coach Brad Autry said. “There is not one guy who is going ‘we’re going to be really good if I’m exactly what I was last year,’ so the onus is on us to get better as a team but more importantly to compete.”
Seniors Trenton Cooley and A.G. Denton were key components to last year’s 23-8 team that finished 12-2 in the 5A-West but behind the Triplet of Scorers (graduated seniors Drew Brasuell, Jaxon Cazzell and Glavine McDonald) that combined for more than 3,000 points in their careers.
“We have guys that were in the background as strong as they were in the background in Trent and A.G.,” Autry said. “They have to become ‘the’ guy that everybody talks about first in the scouting report. They’ve got go from being ‘a’ guy to ‘the’ guy. Then we’ve got to go from ‘no’ guy to ‘a’ guy.”
Seniors Ty Cobley and Elijah Johnson came off the bench last year as did junior Gabe Johnson. All three have increased roles this summer.
“What we looking for most of all is guys that will compete, that will play relentlessly, who will attack and be aggressive,” Autry said. “That’s the biggest thing, who will go and get the ball? Who’s the aggressor?”
At Monday’s camp, Brodie Myers took a charge from Pocola’s 6-9 Dakotah Terrell driving to the basket.
“That’s a mentality,” Autry said. “That’s how we’re going to win at Van Buren. More important than winning, that’s how you win in life. That’s how you win in your business, your family, your faith. Be the aggressor; go get it. Don’t step back and hope something happens. Go make it happen.”
GREENWOOD
The Bulldogs will have a new look about them in the upcoming season and it was evident at Charleston on Monday.
“We are going to be extremely opposite of what we were last year,” Greenwood Coach B.J. Ross said. “We’re going to be more of what my comfort zone is. We’re shooting the ball extremely well. All five of the guys we have on the floor are shooting the ball extremely well. They’ve changed their mentality. There are consequences for missed shots, but not if they’re good shots.”
Senior Jayden Garnes is the only returning starter, and he’s been impressive during the summer for the Bulldogs. Senior Lane Philpot and junior Hudson Clark played some off the bench this season and have worked their way into the top of the lineup along with senior Blake Christiansen and Jack Scott, a move-in from Northside.
“We’re small, we’re quick and we can all shoot,” Ross said. “That’s been a big key. We’ve got some hard-nosed kids. One through five, we’re shooting it like crazy, but we’re 6-1 at the biggest. We’ve seen some good things. That’s the five we’ve found that have really meshed and played well together. We’ve got more. Four of those played JV with each other last year. It will be a different brand. We’ll play a little faster. This group loves the gym. They’re up there, and they want to shoot all the time.”
CLARKSVILLE
Chuck Davis took his team through the second team camp of the summer on Monday after taking over for Tony Davis as head coach of the Panthers.
After just 10 practices, he’s learning his players.
“That’s the main thing, get to know these kids a lot and see what our strengths and weaknesses are,” Davis said. “We’ve had about 10 practices. Mainly, I want to see who’s going to compete. We’ve got a long ways to go, but I’m excited. Clarksville has had a lot of success in the past. Tony did a great job. I’m hoping to get us back where we were at previously. The main goal is to get to know these kids and for them to know me and what I want to do and what’s expected of them as well.”
Tony Davis was the coach at Clarksville for 15 seasons before being replaced by Chuck Davis, who was the coach at Shiloh Christian for the last five years. Chuck Davis also was an assistant coach at Elkins and did his practice teaching under Brad Johnson at Ozark.
Monday’s team camp marked the second highly-competitive camp after going to Harding University two weeks ago.
“There are some good teams,” Davis said. “We went to Harding University, and there were a lot of good teams there. We had two practices and were missing four guys, but again wins and losses maybe 15 years ago would have mattered at team camp. Now, I want to see the guys compete and get to know them, who we can we count on.”
The Panthers have an influx of players out from the football team that haven’t played in recent years in quarterback Angel Alvarez and Brack Denton as well as Christian Boyce, a move-in from Morrilton.
“We have some new kids,” Davis said. “We’ve got kids who have been on the team but haven’t gotten reps. We’re giving them new opportunities. Some of them have run with it.”
The Panthers have about 20 players out for the varsity.
CHARLESTON
Charleston Coach Chad Haynes begins his second season as head coach after taking over for Ross, who left for Greenwood last year.
Haynes and Ross teamed up for Monday’s team camp, which they began in 2012.
“We always have good teams that want to come play,” Haynes said.
In his second year, Haynes is forced to replace three starters due to graduation with Maddix Terry and Colten Rucker the only returning starters.
“We lost three starters from last year, so we’re trying to build chemistry,” Haynes said. “We’ve got some younger guys coming up and kids that didn’t get much playing time last year that will get a lot this year. The chemistry is the biggest thing.”
The Tigers will spend the summer also looking at depth as well as replacing the starters.
Emiliano Gaona, Mason Newhart, Gavin Noble and Carter Little have been working hard this summer.
“We have a lot of guys,” Haynes said. “I think we had some depth.”
OZARK
The Hillbillies have added competition to their summer and early season schedule with four returning starters from a year ago.
“We lost our senior guard from last year, so we’re looking for a guy to step up to secure that role,” Ozark Coach Brad Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of guys working, doing a good job with it. We’ve got everybody back except one so we’re adding some younger kids. We’re looking for chemistry this summer.”
Ozark opened with Alma at Charleston’s team camp on Monday and competed against Hot Springs Lakeside at a camp at Harding University.
“We get Alma right out of the box,” Johnson said. “We’ll find some toughness about us. We played Lakeside a couple of weeks ago at the Harding camp, and they’re physical and strong. They’re playing six seniors. They challenged us. That’s what we need. We want to be challenged and compete. We want to play teams that are better than us to raise our level of play and toughness. Toughness in the offseason is usually No. 1 anyway. We’ve put them through the wringer this summer and we packed our schedule, too. We’re looking forward to this group. If they stay healthy and stay together great things can happen.”
Seniors Dean Culver and Slayde Williams along with junior Caleb Lyons were keys to a 21-14 season a year ago and return.
Lyons is now 6-4, and sophomore Cooper Duerr has also grown to 6-4. Duerr helped the junior high team to a 25-0 mark.
“That adds some size to us,” Johnson said. “We want to see who we are and what’s our identity without one of our main guys that graduated and seeing how well we can be us.”
Koby Wilbanks, the quarterback on the football team, and Ryder Slokarski are also key parts.
Ozark’s tough summer schedule will be used to prepare the Hillbillies for a nonconference schedule that has added Alma, Maumelle and Huntsville.
“Every year, you have to identify who you are to a certain extent,” Johnson said. “On defense, we’re going to make some adjustments. We’re not going to do just one thing. We’re going to have to do two or three things that make us successful. We’re working through some kinks and ironing out a few things to make this group better. We have a lot of kids back. We’re getting bigger, faster, stronger. We’ve got a tough conference. We’ve got a lot of guys in the gym that work hard and are committed to the process and what we’re asking them to do. We’re asking for some big things from these guys.”
Ozark will host a summer league every Tuesday in July.
“We’ve had a great summer already and it’s just June,” Johnson said. “We packed a lot of stuff into June. July, we’ll get into more of a routine with the team camps every Tuesday. We want to compete, compete, and compete.
POCOLA, OKLA.
The Indians will try to keep feeding the beast that has produced three-straight state tournament appearances with another aggressive summer slate.
“We’re just trying to get work in,” Pocola Coach Derek Barlow said. “We’ve had a good summer thus far.”
In addition to playing Arkansas Class 5A Alma, Van Buren and Greenwood, Pocola went to a camp at the University of Oklahoma two weeks ago.
“We went to a camp in Norman and played in the large school division, and played a lot of teams from Dallas that were 6A,” Barlow said. “We went 5-3 and played four games every day.”
Pocola went to the state championship game last year but lost both guards and the leading scorer off the best team in school history.
“We graduated two guards from last year, so we’ve got two ball handlers to replace and a scorer,” Barlow said. “We’re playing bigger schools like Alma and Van Buren that put pressure on us and lets our guards get used to handling that pressure. In Norman, we did really good. Here, we kind of struggled a little big. We didn’t handle the pressure very well. That’s what we want, we want to see good teams and let the kids respond to pressure. We’re learning out of it.”
Pocola returns 6-9 Dakotah Terrell and return Braydon Hardwick as well as A.J. Lyons-Jerrell.
Logan Dunigan and DaQuayne Terrell played off the bench last year and have stepped up their roles during the summer.
“We’re trying to get young guys reps,” Barlow said. “It’s a little bit of a difference for them because these kids are bigger and stronger. That’s the whole purpose. If we can handle the ball against this level, we’ll be fine against smaller schools.”
Heustin Stroops, a 6-5 junior, moved in from Poteau but didn’t play on Monday due to a slight injury.
“He helps us tremendously,” Barlow said. “We’re getting better.”
ROLAND, OKLA.
Graduation along with DaVohn Hall moving to Northside makes the summer critical for the Roland Rangers.
“We lost our two leading scorers,” Roland Coach Eddie Lewis said. “Hopefully, we’ll keep playing and keep getting in the gym and getting better. We want to play together and hopefully the guys can play a little more free and see what they’re capable of and see what we need to work on. We always have to work on defense, and that’s something we definitely want to look at.”
Lewis took his team to the camp at Charleston for the second year in a row and likes the format.
“The good thing is about the quarters, and they play some situations,” Lewis said. “You have to play every possession. It’s a really good camp. We came here last year and had a really good camp.”
Junior Buck Triplett, who started last year, and sophomore Kade Shook, who played significantly off the bench last year, have had good summers. The Rangers are also expected to add Damonte Owens and Landon Fowler from Moffett’s Junior High.
“We had a couple of kids from Moffett,” Lewis said. “They’re right in the hunt for varsity time.”
Ozark’s Cooper Duerr (left) and Koby Wilbanks (right) defend against Alma’s Camden Curd at Charleston’s basketball team camp on Monday. (Special to River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Leland Barclay)