PikeView stood one game away from a state tournament berth last year before a blowout loss at Sissonville ended its season.
Gone are a pair of standouts starters in David Thomas and Jared Vestal but head coach Les Farmer still has some experienced returners.
“I got Drew Damewood coming back and he’s a four-year starter at point guard,” Farmer said. “I’m expecting big things out of him. He played really well in our scrimmage and I’m excited about what he can do. We’re also returning guards at Elijah Hall and Bryson Bailey. Both of them should see a significant amount of time and played pretty well for us at times last year. Elijah Hall definitely is a big part of our success that we have hopefully this year. And then we got a few younger guys stepping up. I’ve got Ryan Robinette. He’s a sophomore he looks to play at our big spot. He’s not really big but all that height is gone now.”
Thomas and Vestal were a pair of towering players, clearing 6-foot-4 each. The personnel and abundance of guards will force Farmer and Co. to play a different style.
“We gotta try to find a way to score in other ways,” Farmer said. “We used to try to pound it in the paint and do different things with our size but now now we got a lot of guards playing and I got some shooters that can shoot it. We’re trying to possibly go with some up-tempo and get out and try to get points in different various ways.”
The Panthers will have a difficult path to the state tournament. Gone is the sectional tournament, replaced with a regional tournament that no longer affords teams the luxury of a loss. Adding to the matter is the reclassification of Greenbrier East and Princeton which drop into the region form Class AAAA.
“The whole landscape was not in our favor,” Farmer said. “But we’re gonna make the best out of it right now. We’re just we’re not even talking about long-term goals.The three guys I mentioned I mean, we got a younger squad. I’m gonna be playing a freshman significant amount, a sophomore a significant amount so right now we’re just trying to get through our short-term goals of just trying to handle each practice and take it day by day just trying to get better each practice. We’re just trying to get ready for next week when we tip off with Oak Hill, just trying to go game by game.”
In order for the Panthers to be successful, they’ll need to keep all of their players on the floor. That was a problem a year ago when injuries hit and light on experience, that makes even more of a difference.
“I think biggest thing is staying healthy,” Farmer said. “Last year I felt like we had a big stretch where we were playing our best basketball and then Drew went down and had a really bad hip injury. Drew is one of the toughest kids you can be around and for him to be hurt like that and knowing Drew as well as I do, and for him to look at me and say ‘I can’t go,’ that crushed me. I know for him not to go he was really hurt so really just stay healthy. I mean we’re not deep. We’re not deep at all. We don’t have the numbers that sniff what these other schools in our region will have. We’re just trying to make the best of it. We definitely got some talent though I mean, I ain’t trying to say we don’t. We just gotta try to stay healthy. Some of these younger guys they’re not used to the varsity level. We’re just trying to get their short-term goals right and trying to take it a day at a time. Trying to reach our goals and be ready for March.”
