The early portion of the boys basketball campaign in Charmco has been a little crazy to say the least.
With the football team making a deep postseason run, head coach Jared Robertson is still not quite sure what his team will look like this season.
“I still haven’t seen everybody together. We have four kids that are playing football that haven’t done anything with basketball yet,” Robertson said. “Two of which will be starters and a couple of kids that will play a few minutes off the bench.”
The scenario is not totally new for the veteran coach who played on the 1991 Class AA state runner-up team in football and the eventual state champion that same school year in basketball.
“We already moved our first game back and hopefully moving a couple more games back. It is tough because you don’t know exactly what to do when you don’t have everyone out there,” Robertson said. “It is a good problem to have. (Head football coach and assistant basketball coach Kelley Vaughan) is quick to point out that back in 1991-92 it worked out fine for Greenbrier West. I think coach Estep moved four or five games that year for us when football went to the championship.”
The Cavaliers will be led this season by one of the top guards in the state in senior Braydon McClung.
“Braydon is a great all-around player, but he has taken his scoring to a new level this summer,” Robertson said. “In the summer league he was really hard to stop and I hope that carries over to our season.”
McClung’s ability to score the ball has Robertson already making plans for what he will likely see from opposing defenses this season.
“I told my dad (assistant coach Butch Robertson) that we needed to sit down and work on some box-and-1 offense because if Braydon plays like he is capable of, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of that this year,” Robertson admitted.
Robertson will look to seniors Tanner Hagy and Damien Dixon to add to the scoring attack for the Cavaliers this season.
“We have a lot of kids capable of scoring. We have an annual Friday after Thanksgiving scrimmage and honestly to be missing a couple of kids, we shot the ball really well and played better than I expected. We will see,” Robertson said. “Tanner and Damien shot the ball really well which gave me some positive thoughts going down the road.”
Along with scoring the basketball, the senior trio will also split the point guard duties.
“It is not like Braydon is just a scorer. He is a good passer too. We don’t have a true point guard at this time, but he plays it some. Tanner and Damien have played it some,” Robertson said. “Even Isaac Agee played it some this summer, so it is going to be point guard by committee. I am not a huge fan of that, but it is kind of the kids we have right now. We are trying to keep our offense open ended where any of them can run the point or any of them can be on the wing and try to attack teams that way.”
Senior Chris Davis played last year and will be a strong post presence to fill the gap left by Michael Kanode who graduated last year.
“Chris Davis is about 6-foot-3 and is bigger and stronger,” Robertson said. “He will be a strong rebounder for us and showed some nice post moves in the scrimmage.”
Agee and fellow-junior Colton Dunbar both had standout seasons on the gridiron and will look to carry that momentum over to the hardwood as the season goes along.
“Isaac Agee and Colton Dunbar played really well for us this summer, but they have not been in the mix yet,” Robertson said. “That gives us six kids that can score a little bit for us, so hopefully that takes the burden off Braydon.”
One of the main challenges for the Cavaliers this year will be adding depth to the line-up.
“Right now I would say we don’t have a lot of depth, but we have the potential to have a lot of depth. It will be just finding who can be productive,” Robertson said. “In the early going it’s going to be give a guy a couple of minutes here and there and see how he performs to earn more minutes.”
“Levi Ramsey and Ethan Hamons will get a chance to add depth in the post along with Davis and Dunbar, while a trio of guards will see time up top.
“Kamden Sams and the next McClung, Landon McClung, along with Dakota McKinney played JV and played this summer,” Robertson said. “They just need to step up and show they can play varsity minutes and be productive.”
