There was no guarantee that Shady Spring would earn its fourth straight trip to the boys state tournament this year.
No eyebrows were raised either, when the Tigers punched their ticket to the big dance last week with a hard-fought regional win over Lewis County.
The result may have been the same, but the road to the Capital City had a different look this year in contrast to the past three journeys.
Anchored by a solid core the last three years, Shady Spring laid waste to teams in the regular season and the postseason on its way to three appearances in the Class AAA state championship game.
While the current version of the Tigers have handed out some beat-downs of their own, they have also had to beat teams in lower scoring games with defense.
“The main thing I said from day one (this year) was we are not going to physically impose our will on everybody, like we have the last four years,” Shady Spring head coach Ronnie Olson said. “We have to grind it out. (Two-time defending AAA state champion) Fairmont Senior can impose their will on people, but they can also grind people out. You see a lot of the same things from us, in your face defense and the pressure, but you also see us running a lot more sets and grinding people out for longer periods of time.”
Shady Spring has frustrated opposing defenses with balance scoring led by senior Ammar Maxwell who averages 22 points per game and grabs seven rebounds.
Flanking Maxwell is a trio of players averaging 13 points per game in fellow-senior Gavin Davis and juniors Jalon Bailey and Jack Williams.
Williams and Davis add four rebounds per game, while Bailey is a menace up top with three steals per game.
Khi Olson gives the Tigers a scoring threat from deep and sophomore Brody Radford is the proverbial Swiss Army knife as a do at all guard.
Olson and his crew were aware of the type of team it would have to be this year to succeed. To their credit, the players embraced it from day one.
“If you are not open and honest with yourself as coaches, as players, as a team and as a program, you can’t have any type of self accountability. We preach that here. That starts with what type of team we are,” Olson said. “They are comfortable in their own skin. We can go fast or slow. This team has taken that and ran with it.”
Shady Spring opened the season with a 50-point pasting of Wesley Christian en route to a 20-4 record.
Wins included triumphs over state tournament teams Bluefield (AA) at home, East Fairmont (AAA) and two wins over Beckley (AAAA).
The four setbacks all came to state tournament teams as well, including Bluefield inside the Brushfork Armory, Morgantown (AAAA), Huntington (AAAA) and Fairmont Senior (AAA).
Morgantown and Huntington are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in AAAA, respectively, while Senior is the top-seed in AAA. Bluefield is the No. 1 seed in the AA division.
“Everybody’s goal in the state of West Virginia is to go the state tournament. Saying and doing are two different things,” Olson said. “I know people thought we were going to be good and thought we would get back to the state tournament, but for this group to do it with the schedule they played and win 20 games is pretty awesome.”
While many across the Mountain State have the No. 2 seeded Tigers penciled in for a championship battle with Fairmont Senior for the third straight year, Olson is not looking ahead to Saturday.
Shady Spring will open state tournament play against North Marion Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The Huskies are coming off of a run to the football championship game before dropping a heart-breaker to Fairmont Senior by one point.
“This the hardest first round match-up that I have had as a coach down in Charleston. I never overlook an opponent. We have watched a ton of film on them,” Olson said. “They have a lot of football players that have good bodies and two really good players. One player is a face-up post and a senior guard that is 6-foot-1, along with a couple shooters. They are a bigger-type team. Like I said, we are not going to impose our will on them.”
Olson has made defense the foundation of his program over the years. After watching teams struggle shooting the basketball inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, the veteran coach reiterated the importance.
“You have to be able to defend. You want to make it hard on people because teams will make it hard on us. We want to do that more than the opponent does,” Olson said. “We have to do it with defense, maybe speeding them up.”
North Marion enters the battle with an 11-11 record which Olson feels is by no means indicative of the team Shady will face Tuesday afternoon.
“We have to keep them off the glass. The type of defense they play, they are in good rebounding position,” Olson said “I hope we do, but we might not get a lot of offensive rebounds. We have to be efficient on the offensive end as well.”
The winner between Shady Spring and North Marion will face the winner of No. 3 Nitro (23-2) and No. 6 Sissonville (15-10) on Thursday, March 14 at 11:15 a.m.
