Last year’s Bluefield team looked like it would be buying a ticket to the state tournament.
Instead it gave eventual state runner-up Poca everything it wanted in the quarterfinals in Charleston.
The young Beavers went on the road in the sectional championship, beating Wyoming East before beating Liberty at the Brushfork Armory to clinch its state tournament berth.
After a year of experience, Bluefield coach Buster Large is hoping his team continues to grow.
“Well last year was a rough year in a lot of different ways,” Large said. “With the health factors and cancellations of practice it made things difficult. This year we’re off to a good start. Right now we’ve got a bunch of kids in here working hard and the coaches – Tony Webster, Jody Fuller, Doug Miller – they’re all in there pushing these kids and trying to get the best our of them. We feel real good about it.”
The Beavers return nearly every key player from last year’s team, including several underclassmen.
“You’ve got to start with Chance Johnson,” Large said. He’s very improved and he’s a senior coming off of football. Jae’on Flack, our point guard last year, is back. Will Looney had a good summer and got taller. Caleb Fuller was one of our leading scorers last year and then you got R.J Hairston who started as a ninth grader and he’s got up to 6-foot-4 and lost weight so we’ve definitely got some good, good leadership and experience coming back.”
The calling card for the Beavers has always been their defense, specifically their pressure packages which are considered the best in the state. Large again anticipates that will be the strength of his team as they find their groove on offense.
“It starts with defense,” Large said. “Coach Webster always stresses the defense that pushes all these kids and we work on it every day. It helps us score too. We’ve got some improvement on offense too. We have kids that developed more skills and get around the bucket so it’s going to be a very, very interesting year. We know the region is very tough with Wyoming East and Liberty and Chapmanville. We’ve got to work hard to be better in March.”
As far as weaknesses go, Large is holding back on disclosing any. He’s waiting to see how the first few weeks of the season go before naming any pressing issues.
“You find that out in early in the season,” Large said. “I don’t really know what our weaknesses are, but I think we’ll be good rebounding and good defensively. Any time you’ve got two factors like that you’ll be competitive.”
For the Beavers, who have played for three state championships over the last nine years, winning two, the goal always remains the same – win another. Of course there are steps and goals to hit along the way but Large believes the team has been prepared to accomplish those.
“Well obviously we want to get back,” Large said. “You want to win the sectional and the regional for a chance to get back to Charleston. We’re pretty proud of what we’ve done over the last 11 years. It didn’t happen overnight. We worked in the summer, we worked in the weight room, we worked in the fall and we’ve played 20 or 30 games every summer and we take these kids to every competitive college shootout we can find and it’s all paid off. We’ve had great, great support from our administration in getting us there. We know what we can do and we’ve got to do it in a short time because next Friday comes quick.”