Beckley basketball is synonymous with success.
Last year it wasn’t.
The young Flying Eagles stumbled throughout the season with a group of underclassmen, finishing with five wins, the lowest total in the program’s illustrious history. A loaded schedule didn’t help matters but nonetheless it was an eye-opener.
“Our expectations are high,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “We’ve got a young team but they enjoy playing basketball and I really think they like each other. Our young kids have already said they’re going to win more than five games. They’ve got a lot of grit just to say that. I thought our kids came in each and every day last year and worked hard. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way but I think this group has something to prove. They don’t want to be like last year.”
The Flying Eagles will once again be relying on a talented young group of players, hoping the results are different. Gone are Maddex McMillen, Keynan Cook, Sam Peck, Mike Miller and Landyn Wolfe, all of whom saw key minutes. The good news is the Flying Eagles have brought in a talented middle school class, one Kidd expects to contribute immediately.
“I think they’re definitely going to have to step in,” Kidd said. “We lost some guys last year that were mostly seniors. The kids we have now are ninth graders and they had a great team at Park (Middle School). They had a great season there and we expect big things from them. Some of them will have to step right into the starting lineup.”
Returning is a talented trio that saw starter minutes at times last year as Kidd tried to figure something out. Leading the way is junior point guard Elijah Redfern who was the second-team all-stat captain last season.
“Elijah’s at the top and Brayden’s (Hawthorne) back and Jalon Walton’s back,” Kidd said. “Those main three guys from last year saw a whole lot of time. We’ve got M.J. Staples back who played and he’s a sophomore that started a few games too.”
The unfortunate part for the Flying Eagles is that while youth springs eternal, it also comes with growing pains, especially in the highest classification in the state.
“Our weakness might be that we’re so young and high school ball will be different for our kids,” Kidd said. “Even though they can play it’s going to a be a little different so I think our weakness might be that we’re young and just how fast our kids have to get into it and make us a good team. In our scrimmages our kids have been able to shoot the ball and they like playing together. They’re basketball players.”
Despite the youth and coming off a disastrous season, the expectation and goal in Beckley hasn’t changed.
“I think our expectation are always the same,” Kidd said. “We want to be in the state tournament cutting down those nets. That’s our top goal and we want our team doing that. We’re going to work hard to reach that goal and that’s going to be the expectation as long as I’m at Woodrow no matter how young or old the kids are.”
