By Tom Bragg
For Lootpress.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – High school boys basketball is back in the Kanawha Valley and surrounding communities, and this season again figures to feature some strong teams with serious shots at cutting down some nets in the postseason.
Last spring, four teams from Kanawha or Putnam counties – George Washington and South Charleston in Class AAAA, Herbert Hoover in Class AAA and Poca in Class AA, qualified for the state tournament with Poca the lone champion from the Kanawha Valley.
Let’s take a look around both counties as teams open their season’s this week and next.
CLASS AAAA
George Washington and South Charleston both advanced out of Region 3 to the state tournament last, where the neighboring rivals met at the Charleston Coliseum. The Black Eagles won that contest, but will be plugging in some new players after SC lost key contributors Mondrell Dean (Hurricane) and Wayne Harris (Huntington) – a first team All-State pick last season — to transfer. GW, meanwhile, brings back one of the state’s best players in Ben Nicol.
Listed at 6-foot-7, Nicol, who was a Class AAAA first team All-State selection last spring, has already committed to play his college basketball at Ohio University. He will be joined by standout Brenden Hoffman as the main weapons for the Patriots, while Dawson Lunsford, Lukas Deem, Aston Gute, Noah Lewis, Chuck Kelly and Brandon Dawson will also be called on to contribute.
“Ben Nicol, who signed with OU and was first team All-State last year – I think he’s one of the better players in the state and I think he should be a legitimate player of the year candidate, but that depends on how he plays,” GW coach Rick Greene said during a recent media day event put on by WVPrepBB.com at West Virginia State University. “Another senior who has played really well for us has been Brenden Hoffman. Then after that is a lot of inexperience. Good kids, potentially, but we’re probably going to have some growing pains early. We just don’t have that varsity experience, and in my opinion, there is not much that replaces varsity experience.”
Elsewhere around the Kanawha Valley in the big school classification, Capital hopes to get back in the mix for a spot in the state tournament after bowing out to South Charleston in the sectional tournament last spring. Capital coach Matt Greene, the son of cross-town rival Rick Greene at GW, said his team will feature a substantial junior class who contributed as sophomores but looks to the leadership of senior Markel Booker, who Greene said has stepped up as a leader so far.
“I think we have some potential this year, but we’ve been hit with a little bit of the injury bug early,” Greene said. “Shalik Hampton is out until at least February with a broken toe, and we’ve been battling some other injuries. We have three starters out already this year, but I do like our potential. We were a little younger last year, but we’re bringing back six juniors who played for us as sophomores last year. Hopefully they’re able to grow into the roles.”
South Charleston’s loss is Hurricane’s gain in Dean, a senior who was an honorable mention All-State pick last season and helped guide the Redskins to their best football season in school history this fall.
“Mondrell Dean is playing for us, and he does make a difference on our team,” Hurricane coach Lance Sutherland said. “He lifts everybody up and encourages everybody. He has made a difference in just the week of practice that he has been there. We also have Jackson Clark and Brayden Whittington and a host of other juniors who have played the last two years.”
The Redskins have a tough road to the state tournament, with a Mountain State Athletic Conference schedule before Region 4 postseason play with Parkersburg, Parkersburg South and St. Albans in their section.
“As far the team goes, like everybody else is going to say, we’re pretty young,” Sutherland said. “We have two or three seniors and the influx of the football players helped a bit.
“We did have a lot of freshman and sophomores play the last two years, so we do have a lot of experience coming back. As far as how good we’ll be, I have no idea. We could be really, really good. Or, we could be really, really bad. It depends on how they gel and how they progress throughout the year. We’re probably in one of the toughest regions and sections this year with Huntington and South – and St. Albans is pretty good too. It’s going to take a lot to get to Charleston for us.”
CLASS AAA
Herbert Hoover was the Kanawha Valley’s only Class AAA state tournament representative last season, but Nitro and Winfield were both solid in advancing to the Region 4 co-finals.
Hoover, fresh off the school’s first ever appearance in football’s Super Six, should be good again with several key players back from the back-to-back Region 3 co-champs.
“I’m going to have probably two of the best guards in the state in Eli Robertson and Dane Hatfield,” Huskies coach Josh Stricker said. “It hurts losing three seniors last year after we made it to the state tournament two times in a row, but I feel really good about this team.”
Hoover is stuck in a spread out Region 3, Section 2 along with Sissonville, Nicholas County and Lewis County, while the Kanawha Valley’s other Class AAA teams get to stick a little closer to home for postseason opponents.
Nitro and Winfield are joined by Ripley and Point Pleasant in Region 4, Section 1, and both the Wildcats and Generals will be looking to improve after finishing just short of the state tournament last season.
For Nitro, that means replacing six seniors from last season. Head coach Austin Lowe will have four seniors in Ryan Smith, Corey Haddad, Rashawn Robbins and Derick Woodrum and also has a young but talented group of sophomores led by Ashton Crouch, Derek Lowe and Landon Poniatowski.
At Winfield, the Generals have a new head coach in Travis Tarr after Chris Stephens resigned in October. Tarr will have a senior guard to help lead the way in Ross Musick, an honorable mention All-State selection last season, as well as a talented sophomore in 6-foot-5 Bryson Childers.
CLASS AA
Poca is the defending state champion in Class AA, but the Dots won the title with a senior-laden team and will be short on experience this season.
Eight seniors, including current University of Virginia guard and two-time Bill Evans Award winner Isaac McNeely, are gone from Poca’s state champions, with one starter from that team – senior guard Kam Meeks – returning. Jordan Wolfe, a four-year starter at quarterback for Poca, will make his return to the hardwood this season while junior Hunter Toney also saw plenty of playing time last season and will be counted on by veteran Dots coach Allen Osborne.
“We lost eight seniors – some great players – so we have a new team,” Osborne said. “Any time you have a new team you get excited. Expectations from the outside aren’t very high, but we’ll be as good as we can be and try to get better every day.
The Dots beat Charleston Catholic in the Region 4 co-finals last season, and this season they’ll have to get through the Irish in sectional play.
Catholic brings back 6-foot-3 junior Jayallen Turner, a first team All-State selection last season, as well as Gio Cinco, Maxwell Cox and Jeff Reynolds. Kellen Swann, a standout for Catholic’s dominant boys soccer team, will also join the Irish on the hardwood this season.
“Our team this year has a lot of guys back,” Catholic coach Hunter Moles said. “We dealt with a lot of adversity last year, but we’ve got a lot of experience. You can’t teach that varsity experience – having people in the stands watching you play. We’ve got a lot of guys back
“I think we’ve got about six guys who are starters, and that’s always a good problem to have as a coach. We’ve got a great freshman class as well, so we’re really looking forward to it.”
Buffalo could also be in the mix in Region 4, Section 1. The Bison, who fell to Ravenswood in Region 4’s other co-final last season, bring back senior Caleb Nutter, a second team All-Stater last season.
