Summers County was the dealt the hand of having to compete in a region featuring several Class AA powers such as Wyoming East, Bluefield and Chapmanville when the reclassifications were announced prior to last season.
The Bobcats will do so again, just with a much younger team
“I have four primarily back from last year’s team,” Summers coach Robert Bowling said. “But again our numbers last year were incredibly low for a variety of reasons, Covid being at the top. We have 21 kids out this year, so our numbers went way back up,” Bowling said.
The increase in numbers has Bowling cautiously optimistic that the team will improve this year. That optimism is also fueled by several returning players.
“Bryson Keaton is our lone senior,” Bowling said. “He’s been around here for four years and has kind of paid his dues. He’s grown some and shoots the ball well. He wins all of our shooting drills in practice most days. Brandon Isaac is back and he’ll be a sophomore. He started some for us on the perimeter. He has a really high basketball IQ and makes good decisions. We have Peyton Miller back and he’s a junior. He’s more of a forward kind of player. He’s gotten bigger and stronger and is capable of making perimeter shots.
“We’ve got Ethan Eerenburg back and he’s a good athlete that’s quick. He’s more of a slasher than he is a shooter but a tough-nosed kids. We’ve got a really good freshman too and a transfer from Mercer Christian, a kid that lives in Pipestem so he’s a Summers County kid. We’ve also got a football kid that hadn’t played and a couple that sat out last year before Covid. I think we’re going to have pretty good depth. We’ve got about 10 kids we think we can put in the game at this point. But that said we’re young and have some guys that didn’t play last year. We’re trying to get them all on the same page right now.”
The numbers are also what Bowling believes will be the strength of his team. Last year’s Covid cases drained his roster so he’s hoping the depth helps Summers wear on teams.
“I would say depth,” Bowling said. “We’ve got about 10 kids we think can play and I’ve got to give them high marks on their attitude. They’ve been great to work with and get better every day. We scrimmaged James Monroe and they beat us. You always expect some game slippage and it’s easy to know what to do in practice. We tried to keep it really vanilla. We try to teach them what we’re calling things and get on the same page. I just think that our decision making right now isn’t bad, it’s just hard to go full speed when you’re still reluctant. I think they’re all trying to do the right thing and we’re still trying to iron that out. We’re pretty inexperienced right now. The upside though is as their understanding improves they have potential to get a lot better.”
With a younger team Bowling doesn’t want to place too many expectations on them. The goal is to constantly grow and improve as well as take care of their own business in not giving games away.
“I’m hesitant to put a number on it,” Bowling said. “I want to win all of the games we should win. We shouldn’t give any away that maybe we’re more talented or we have the better team. I would like to see improvement throughout the year and when we get to the tournament we’ll see what happens. I want us to hold our own and take care of our business. I’m always hesitant to say we’re going to win this or do that.”
