It’s a new year but the goal remains the same for the Shady Spring boys basketball team – win a state championship.
This time last year the Tigers were riding high after clinching their first title in 2021. This year there’s motivation as they lost to Fairmont Senior on a buzzer beater in the state championship game last season.
Despite that they’re still held in high regard earring the preseason No. 1 ranking in Class AAA but with success comes confidence. The Tigers have confidence to spare and weaknesses are hard to find but for head coach Ronnie Olson it’s complicated matters a little. His players know they’re good and won’t be seriously challenged often.
So he made sure to find a way to keep them leveled.
“I was telling my wife how excited I was the first time we were ranked No. 1 and now we’ve done it each year since,” Olson said. “I didn’t think it would be a problem but it’s been a little issue. They’re hungry but they’re so good, it’s tough to explain. They know they can just turn it on but I think they learned in the state tournament that doesn’t always work. Even in the preseason they coasted a little bit but still won comfortably. They’re so talented and good and they’re not used to losing. Sometimes they have to press that button but that’s probably what I’ve battled the most. That’s why our schedule is set up so tough – so they don’t press that button to turn it on. You’r not going to coast against the team we play this year.”
Entering as one of the favorites to hoist the title trophy again as they did when they were sophomores, the schedule is loaded. The Tigers will play all three of the other top-ranked teams at least once in Morgantown, Bluefield and James Monroe with a tournament in Florida on the slate as well.
“We play the best team in the state ranked No. 1 in the four-A state champions in Morgantown right off the bat,” Olson said. “That’s going to show us if they think they can just turn it on they’re going to have a bunch of blemishes on their record this year if they choose to not play all four quarters and think we can coast. That goes back to what I said – we’re not a finesse team. I want to be a hard-nosed, punch you in the mouth team that grinds it out like we used to and that’s what made us who we are. Teams don’t want to play not because they don’t want to lose but because they don’t want to get into a brawl with us and we kind of got away from that a little bit.”
As far as personnel, the Tigers return everybody. Last year’s team didn’t feature a single senior as the program has only graduated one key contributor since 2020. Seniors Cameron Manns, Jaedan Holstein, Sam Jordan and Braden and Cole Chapman return along with Ammar Maxwell who came into his own late last season.
Aside from that the Tigers are still assessing their personnel. When healthy they have depth but Brady Green is working his way back into basketball shape after tearing his ACL last August and Jack Williams, who started at point guard as a freshman last year before tearing his ACL in December, is working his way back too.
“It’s up in the air,” Olson said. “Jack had to step back because he hit a deer and his body’s kind of banged up. That’s a setback and Brady’s coming back slow. We’ve got Sam (Jordan) and Gavin (Davis) but I’ve looked down to maybe Khi (Olson) and Jalon (Bailey) and maybe even a freshman in Brody (Radford). It’s up in the air right now and that’s what I’m tinkering with right now.”
Olson is hoping the depth pans out, making his defensive philosophy to attack and grind that much more effective.
“The more you can play it’s way better for your team,” Olson said. “You can give them breathers with the style of play and I’d love to do that and not have anybody fall off. If we get Jack healthy and we’ll see with Gavin and Khi and Jalon and those guys but for now I’m looking at six and seeing who can earn our trust down the road.”
Speaking of defense, it’s what Olson points once again as the strength. The Tigers can light it up on offense but their ability to grind and wear on team mentally and physically sets them apart.
“The style of defense we can play,” Olson said. “We pressure people and turn them over and we can guard every spot. The pace of play we play at is hard to keep up with as well as our guards. Defensively what do you do against us too on offense? We can attack man or zone. I know I wouldn’t want to coach against us.”