Tom Evans’ first two seasons have ended the way every coach at Westside dreads – with a first round loss to Wyoming East.
Despite those outcomes now is the time for his squad to capitalize on championship aspirations. The Renegades are loaded with retuning starters, ready to make noise in Class AA.
“Austin Bishop’s back, Bryson Blankenship’s back and Kadien Vance is back,” Evans said. “Coltin Lester’s back and he was coming off the bench last year, but started a bunch of games at sophomore. The only player that played significant minutes that I lost was Brayden French.”
Bishop led the Renegades in scoring last year, averaging 18 points per game while Vance and Blankenship averaged double-doubles. The plethora of experience and talent has the Renegades aiming for something they haven’t achieved since 2018.
“It’s always the goal to get to Charleston so you can at least compete for a championship,” Evans said. “I mean that’s everybody’s goal. The last couple years maybe expectations were a little, maybe too much for them but they’re older. I think that’s the biggest thing about these boys and the maturity that I’ve seen over the summer is is really good. They’re really physically mature. Bryson Blankenship, he plays a little bit of center and a little bit of a small forward but he’s like 6-foot-7 and he’s gained about 15 to 20 pounds. Kadien is about 6-foot-1, 200-plus pounds and all these guys have gotten bigger and stronger and that the big difference I’ve seen in them. Their physicality has gotten way better.”
While they’re bigger physically, Evans doesn’t even believe that’s his team’s biggest strength. He’s hoping that experience and live reps favor them this season.
“It’s 100 percent that they’ve been in big games,” Evans said. “They’ve seen the teams that have won championships, what they look like and what they feel like. We played, oh my gosh, I think we played 40 games this summer all over the place all over the East Coast. We played against teams from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. You name it. The experience, being out there knowing the game is different. They gotta compete and match physicality and intensity. And know that the wins aren’t just gonna come because they show up.”
That experience will be key early. The Renegades play a grueling schedule with teams such as Logan and Chapmanville, who they’ll open with. That was intentional for Evans who truly believes if the Renegades are going to make some noise, this the year to do it. The top of Class AA is loaded with programs that have a championship pedigree and to compete with them they need not be starstruck by the moment.
“The schedule is difficult,” Evans said. “I looked at it last season, I went through our big games that were in hostile environments, that were highly competitive and I only found a couple. The Wyoming East games of course are always that way, but as far as games that were highly competitive, good teams, good environments that put them in like a state tournament kind of mode, you know like a pressure pack kind of game? I just didn’t have any so I flipped that and we got Logan, Chapmanville and Bluefield. We got James Monroe, Martinsburg, Musselman and we play Shady Spring at the armory, so that that’s the reason it’s so tough.”
