Shady Spring coach Ronnie Olson doesn’t have much working against him.
In fact when pressed for a weakness, it takes a moment of thought to find an answer.
“I’m interested to see how we respond early in the year because we have a tough schedule,” Olson said. “We open up with Westside and then we go to Logan and Huntington, back to back nights. You’re talking about playing up in Huntington and waking up and playing in Logan the next day. So I’m interested to see how this team does with a couple tough games on the road. I made it that way because I wanted to see how we reacted to it. If we lose, how are we going to react to it? I know how last year’s team reacted to it. Poca was a big turning point for us. It really just bothered us and we knew what we had to do. We take losses as learning. tools. It’s not like we’re made, we figure out how to fix it.”
That’s the luxury of being the defending state champion and winning that title with a group largely comprised of underclassmen.
Back for the defending state champions are four starters – Braden and Cole Chapman, Cameron Manns and Jaedan Holstein. Joining them are key reserves Sam Jordan and Ammar Maxwell.
The only question is who replaces guard Todd Duncan? Olson has an idea which again speaks to the strength of the program. It’s a spot that will be go to either a freshman (Jack Williams), sophomore (Maxwell) or junior (Jordan).
“These guys, the main thing they want to do is win,” Shady coach Ronnie Olson said. “If you can help them achieve their goal, they don’t care where you’re from, what you’ve done, who you hang out with, what clique you run in. If you’re going to be a part of this program and do it the right way, you’re just welcome to be on the team. I think Jack, Sam and Ammar Maxwell can help us fill that role and I think I have in mind who I think is going to step up. Some have stood out more than others the last couple of days. I Â just think that the way this group plays and wants people to win, they really don’t care. That summer’s really helped us. Jack played tons of games and that matters. He acts like he belongs and thinks he belongs and that matters. That in essence will make you belong.”
Having the entire tam back also provide Olson and advantage. The defending state champions are already worlds ahead of where they were last year, or at any point during Olson’s tenure.
“I think this is the first year ever where I have my whole team back,” Olson said. “We did things on the second or third day of practice that we haven’t got to do before because they’re already so far ahead of the game. We’re already putting things in and sharpening some things that we already do. I think that helps us. I’m excited. I always break our seasons down. Thanksgiving break we play a little and Christmas break we get to evaluate a little bit more. You get a week there before sectionals, so I can break our season down in different areas. We’ve got team bonding, so they love it.”
The Tigers have built their program on defense and believe it will be the foundation of this season’s campaign as they hope to go back-to-back.
“We’re going to show some different things on defense,” Olson said. “I know in the state tournament games people do some different things to kind of react from what we’re doing. But we’re going to apply pressure in a bunch of different ways this year. We’re going to give some different looks. We pressured a lot last year but we’re going to take a lot of different avenues this year since we’re so far advanced with what we’re doing. Our base defense will be to pressure and play man and wear on you. I’m not going to give too much on it. We’re working on a lot of different ways to pressure the ball but like I told them, it’s not about what they do, it’s about what we do.”
The goal is obvious and achievable for the Tigers – win another state title. With the landscape of Class AAA changing to where last year’s powers graduated most of their best players, they enter as the heavy favorites and Olson has let it be known that anything less is unacceptable.
“We’re coming in here to win,” he said. “There’s only one goal and that’s it. Those aren’t just words. Literally that’s all we think about. It’s not what we’re going to do, it’s how we’re going to do it. I think that our practices lead to successful games and it makes it easy. Hopefully we stay healthy, Covid doesn’t bother us and we win the whole thing again.”
