Tigers look to run, Lady Tigers look to diversify

By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

The Arcadia Valley basketball teams are seeking to improve this year in different directions. The Tigers are hoping to run the ball on their opponents, and the Lady Tigers will be spreading the scoring around this year.

The Tigers plan to run the ball on the floor, taking advantage of the fast break and applying pressure as often as possible.

"I can put five kids on the floor that can be as fast as anybody else," said Tigers' coach Lance Sprenkel. "Our team is quick. If we let people set up, they'll beat us inside. Our goal is to keep the ball out of the middle."

Lack of varsity experience should not be too much of a problem for Arcadia Valley. The Tigers have seven players returning from last year's varsity roster. Seniors Blaine Dunivan and Dustin Royer will return along with juniors Nic Benz, Jack Franklin, Walter Spitzmiller and Abe Warren.

The seniority players will be joined by seniors Jesse Brawley and Dustin Tucker, juniors Billy Scoggin and Jake Yarbrough, and sophomore Logan Smith.

Even though the Tigers can move the ball with quickness, their need will be to put the ball through the hoop. The sophomore, Smith, who can clip the three, will be a good additive to the team, but Coach Sprenkel still sees work needed for his team.

"The hardest thing for us will be scoring," said Sprenkel. "We'll be looking for the open shot, but we really don't have a 'go-to' guy that we can count on to get us the points."

On defense the Tigers hope to mix up their looks to keep their opponents guessing as to what they will see next. It also means that the Tigers must be alert so they will not get confused as well.

"I just hope we have the intelligence to keep teams off-balance," said Coach Sprenkel.

The Tigers open up their season as always in their Annual Thanksgiving Tournament starting on Monday with conference champions, the West County Bulldogs, as their first opponent at 6:30 p.m.

The Lady Tigers have their work cut out for them to fill a big hole in their scorebook. Last year their scoring was spearheaded by DeAnna Anderson, who always had 20-30 points behind her name and now plays at Mineral Area College.

Coach Andy Sherrill is hoping that he will have several girls to step up and make up the difference. "We'll just have to wait and see," said Coach Sherrill. "Scoring is going to be a big issue for us."

Coach Sherrill sees this year's squad as being "more talented all around", but he sums up the team's progress so far as something he'll have to wait and see if they can put it together.

One returning player who should provide leadership for the team will be Brandi Bennett. Bennett was second team All-Conference last year, and Coach Sherrill hopes to get a lot of scoring from Bennett this year.

Bennett will be joined by familiar faces in the line-up as Tana Franklin, Dorcas Williams and Katie Lambert join her as seniors on the team. All four have been starters together for the past three years.

Juniors Kylee Stocum, Emily Jackson, and April Thurman join the seniors on the team. Joining them are sophomores Leah Williams and Megan Reichert and freshman Kassie Walker.

Coach Sherrill feels his team must control the tempo of the game to have their best chance of winning. "We'll try to push the ball and to control what's going on with the press and trap plays," said Sherrill. "Our girls will need to have a go-get-it, get-at-it attitude."

The Lady Tigers have a little bit of extra time to prepare before their first game which will be on November 29 in the Potosi Tournament.