The first week of practice is now tucked away and the second week of required practices are underway at Star Valley High School before the Braves Basketball team can open up their schedule.
There will be some new faces on the sideline this year for the Star Valley boys with Mitchell Schwab taking over as the new Head Coach from previous floor leader Paul Kabonic. He will be joined by Ben Hale (freshmen) and Shane Williams (sophomores and junior varsity).
While the coaching faces might be a little new, many of the players returning in the Crimson and Gold are not. And on top of that, many Star Valley fans who are used to lamenting a lack of height on the basketball team will have to come up with a new refrain for the 2022-23 squad which will have a tall athletic lineup.
Players like Croix Jenkins (6’ 6’), Jacob Hodges (6’ 5”) and Taft McClure (6’ 5”) return as will Luke Linford (6’ 4”) who missed all of last season with a knee injury. Other players such as Taeson Johnson (6’ 4”) is a sophomore who figures to be working his way into the lineup as well.
Even returners such as Ridge Nield (6’ 2”) would be considered on the tall side for many long-time fans who have become accustomed to a Braves starting lineup with those plus or minus an inch from the six- foot mark. Schwab commented on the po- tential of the group.
“In terms of tempo we jumped right in on the first day,” he said. “They’re working hard. The guys who are coming back have grown and matured and are more athletic than I thought. It’s a unique issue to have depth and height and we have some good young guard talent. Taft seems like he’s really got his legs under him from football. He’s morphed into this natural leader. Some other guys are doing that too. I give hats off to Coach Young for that. I’ve been extremely impressed with our older guys so far. Our focus on tempo so far effects the need to practice on the court like you would in the state championship game. A lot of them are hungry after seeing football win the title and they are working hard and it’s fun to be a part of it so far.”
Along with the height, there are several capable ball-handlers who can do the job as well according to Schwab.
“We started realizing it during summer ball and I tried to throw some of the younger guys to the wolves with a few of those games against some bigger schools,” he said. “It’s an interesting problem to have. But if we need to go small and fast I’m con- fident with that route as well.”
Look for a different offense than what fans have been used to the past few seasons. More of an emphasis on post moves and inside looks will be part of the early focus of possessions.
“The offense we’re going to be running is quite a bit different,” Schwab continued. “Three-out, two-in reads. With our size we need to know the post so we had an emphasis on how to feed the post properly and a lot of drills like that. This year we are looking at more of an emphasis on the post as much as possible. If we’re going to be hitting outside shots we’re going to let the game come to us. We feel like with the talent and height we have we should get a look at the rim down low first.”
The Braves will open up their season on Thursday, December 8 at Riverton Middle School as they face the Laramie Plainsmen at 7:30 pm. On Friday December 9 the boys will face Cheyenne South at the same location with the varsity tip at 5:30. Star Valley will wrap their time in Riverton at the Middle School again on Saturday December 10 against the Sheridan Broncs at 4:30 pm.
