Dublin…Coming off an 11-13 first year as head coach, Andrew Hart is looking at an inexperienced underclassman led squad in his second season. It doesn’t help that three-four players decided not to come out after football was over. This Cougar team will be rebuilding with eight underclassmen of which seven will be sophomores.

Coach Hart said, “ We have only a few returnees from last year. So yes, we will be young, and our schedule will be demanding.” The Cougars will have five seniors: Isaac Poe, Hesus Hickman, Miguel Garcia, Braeden Blevins and Kevin Smith. The Injury bug has already bitten them as Smith has a fractured orbital bone. He will be back in action hopefully by the 10th of December.

Coach Hart is in his second year (11-13) and is assisted by Brandon Smith, CJ Burgis and Phil Mallory. All of them are previous Cougar players. All are starting their second year. Burgis will be in his second year as the junior varsity headman, with Mallory being his assistant. The junior varsity recorded a record of 9-13 last year. They ended on a bad note having lost their last seven in a row.

The lone junior on the squad is Bryan Roberson and the sophomores will be Trent Blankenship, Logan Robertson, CC Grubb, Noah Bradley, Alex Akers, Sean Spencer and Brady Dickerson.

Coach Hart gave a short synopsis of his players, “ Senior Isaac Poe is a true point guard. He’s a leader, good shooter and ball handler. He plays good defense, and we need a good season from him.” Senior Hesus Hickman is “a very good rebounder, very active around the rim. He has a nose for the ball is a good defender.” Senior Miguel Garcia “…can do it all, shoot, rebound, play defense, handle the basketball. Need a big year from him.” Senior Braeden Blevins “…shoots and rebounds well. Hope to get some time from him. The injury (Senior Kevin Smith) has suffered has set him back. He shoots the ball well, good vocal leader and is good rebounder.”

Hart then started on his junior and sophomores. “(Junior Bryan Roberson) may be our best overall shooter. He can stroke it and will see action. (Sophomore Trent Blankenship) is a good passer and defender. We will count on him for lot of minutes. (Sophomore Logan Robertson) is a good shooter, good on ball defender, gritty and hustles. Good ball handler. Will see lot of action for us.”

(Sophomore Alex Akers) “…is a tough defender. Can do lot of things real well. Will get into action this year. (Sophomore CC Grubb) is very talented. can shoot, score and athletic. Will see lots of time on the court.” (Sophomore Noah Bradley) “…can be very good around the rim. Good rebounder. Can be a good scorer. Will see time in the front court for us. (Sophomore Sean Spencer) does lot of things well, handles, shoots. Hasn’t fully recovered from a knee injury. (Sophomore Brady Dickerson) handles and shoots well. Is improving.“

Coach was asked about the in and out of district schedule and he had this to say, ”Salem is tough and well coached. They kind of like us in that they won’t be the tallest team. (Patrick Henry) are loaded. They have tough kids and Coach Esworthy does a great job of coaching team. (Hidden Valley will have a new coach. Lost five -six seniors from last year. Will play hard. (Cave Spring) Knights will have a pretty good player in the Hicks kid. He’s all-state. Will have a guard that can stroke it. (Carroll Co.’s) Coach Hawks does a fine job of coaching. Lost a couple good players. Kids play hard and hustle. (Christiansburg) lost some good players. Xavier Kane can score and very athletic. Couple other kids that will be good. (Blacksburg), I think they lost four starters. Coach Day does a real good job there. Have some good kids back.”

The Cougars will play four teams out of the so-called district. Franklin Co, Bassett, William Byrd and Galax. Coach Hart remarked, “Franklin Co. will have a new coach. They will be athletic, young and have some guards that are good.“ (Byrd) is a very loaded club. They have 6-5 and 6-7 kids that both can play. They will be gritty, tough and can flat out shot the ball. Great size. Will be a handful for lot of teams.

“ I don’t know lot about (Bassett). They will be athletic and in a rebuilding mode, I believe. (Galax’s) Coach Brown does a great job for them. He has been there for 25 years are more? Lost the Conley kid who could flat out shoot. Lost him and two-three other starters. Will be tough.”

A 22-game schedule that will be demanding and rough for a team that is inexperienced and rebuilding. How these young players respond to adversity and hostile situations will determine how or what their record will be. Coach Hart was asked about some kids not coming-out for basketball and he responded by saying, ”We have the kids that want to play and my staff and I will need to coach them up. The schedule is tough and we are young. Our seniors will have to be the leaders for us. I am expecting a lot from Poe, Garcia, Hickman, Blevins and Smith. We need their leadership. In the two scrimmages we had, I thought we played hard, looked for each other. We are small but we have some versatility. We have to be tough mentally. I don’t know if are record will be better, worse or the same. If we hustle, play hard and compete, that will be a lot to build on for us. Our Conference is tough with Byrd, Fleming, Salem and EC Glass.“

Coach then added, “I still want us to play up tempo and pressure defense. Full court pressure because we’re not that tall and have only four returnees. We are rebuilding with sophomores and we shall see how it goes.”

The Cougar junior varsity will consist of sophomores, Kellen Dalton, Jaylin Nowlin and Cole Duncan. The rest of the 12-man squad will be freshmen. Alex Dalton, Ben Poe, Austin Reinhardt, Justin Roberson, Noah O’Dell, Kohl Hedge, Jarius Miller, Julian Black and Caleb Kirtner. Coach Burgis said, ”We not as athletic as last year. We have some, what I call, go-getters and play with lot of heart. We have scrimmaged and I like how we have played together and played fairly well.”

Varsity coach Andrew Hart said, “We have some very good-looking players on the junior varsity. Hope they, like our varsity, will improve as the season goes along and can help us in the future with basketball program here.”