Kentridge High returns only four players from last year’s boys basketball roster, leaving coach Dave Jamison’s work cut out for him as he tries to find the play style and strategies that will work best to the team’s strengths.
In his 15th year of coaching at Kentridge, Jamison looks to get his team back to the Class 4A state playoffs and hopefully a championship. The team suffered back-to-back losses in its appearance last year. The 2014-15 team sees a plethora of new talent to join several dedicated senior veterans.
Newcomers Micah Simmons, Ethan Walker, Braiden Beckman, Rick Ziegenhagen, Matt Fleming and AJ Chappell will join last year’s team of Deon Thomas, Nick Hopson and brothers Jordan and Elijah Ticeson.
“AJ’s a good shooter, he’s quick, he’s gotten much better defensively since the season started, he played freshman team last year and JV all summer, he’s been starting for us every game so that’s a pretty quick progression,” says Jamison.
The coach also has his eye on Simmons as a scoring player.
“Micah had a solid off season, he’s a little bit bigger, a little bit longer, he shoots the ball real well so when we get him back that’s gonna help a lot too.”
The new players present both an obstacle and an opportunity to Jamison, who has to spend much of tryouts getting his new players caught up on the more competitive varsity play.
“Last year I had a lot of guys coming back and had to incorporate a couple of new kids in, this year has been a lot more fundamental teaching and trying to get guys up to varsity speed, and it’s easier to say than do,” says Jamison.
To get to the state tournament, Jamison feels he’s going to have to work on the defensive game to prevent giving up points to free throws.
“The kids just gotta continue to play hard,” he says. “We have a lot of trouble now defensively fouling guys. I think if we take some of that away it will help a lot.”
Ultimately, having a new team is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. Having new players that aren’t restricted to a particular style of play allows Jamison to reinvent the Chargers.
“It’s new, it’s kinda fun not starting all the way over, but retooling and reinventing ourselves,” he says. “We’ve had to do that a number of times over the years, to figure out ways to give your team the best chance to win.”
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