A look at the Trinity Academy Knights basketball teams
SCHEDULE
December – 2, at Douglass; 8-10, Garden City tournament; 17, Sedgwick.
January – 3, Belle Plaine; 6, at Chaparral; 10, Medicine Lodge; 13, at Independent; 17, Garden Plain; 19-21, El Dorado tournament (B); 23-28 Berean Academy tournament (G); 31, at Cheney.
February – 3, Conway Springs; 7, at Douglass; 14, at Belle Plaine; 17, Chaparral; 21, at Medicine Lodge; 24, Independent.
BOYS
Coach: Steve Miller, eighth season, 105-51
Last season: 12-10
Top players
Ben Adler, 6-3, sr., F
Jarrett Counts, 5-9, sr., G
Luke Prohaska, 6-7, sr., F-G
Will Anderson, 5-10, sr., G
Liam Ruesser, 6-0, sr., G
When a down year still includes a trip to a sub-state final and a close loss to the eventual state champ, things are working out well.
After a third-place finish in the Class 4A-II field in 2015, Miller had to break in some new faces last year, but after a 3-6 start, those newcomers found their legs, and a trio of starters in Adler, Counts and Prohaska are back to make that next step.
“We had won the league three years in a row and got a really good senior class to third in the state,” Miller said. “Last year we took a little dip, but I’m excited about the guys we have back and this young class of freshmen and sophomores coming up.”
Prohaska, who often was the first man off the bench for Trinity, led the team in scoring, and will be an athletic asset at his spot on the wing. Adler — a Kansas State football commit — and Counts each averaged better than five points.
“We have a nice mix of leadership, passion and competitiveness, from our seniors down to the underclassmen,” Miller said. “Competitive would have to be the one word to describe them, and that’s kind of a special thing to have.”
GIRLS
Coach: Rex Casner, first season
Last season: 11-11
Top players
Alex Bearup, 5-8, jr., F
Reagan Lesser, 5-3, jr., G
Lauren Snodgrass, 5-8, sr., F-G
A late start to his first year on the Trinity bench meant Casner didn’t get a chance to see his team in full until practice officially got started.
In those first few days though, he saw plenty that he liked.
“They’re working very hard and doing everything that’s asked of them,” said Casner, who spent five years leading the Cheney girls until the beginning of this decade and added three as an assistant with the Trinity boys before taking a couple of years off. He was The Eagle’s All-State Coach of the Year in 2010.
“We don’t really have many full-time starters back, but there’s three or four that got plenty of starts and saw the floor a lot. We’re going to have the ability to play a deep rotation.”
Bearup averaged 11.5 points a year ago to lead the returners, while Lesser and Snodgrass appeared in almost every game and combined for another 8 points.
That’s a good starting point for the offense, but Casner likes what he’s seeing on the other end of the court, and thinks his defense may be the team’s calling card.
“They’re off to a great start understanding our defensive concepts,” he said. “I think we’ll be a very hard-working defense.”
David Rung
This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "A look at the Trinity Academy Knights basketball teams."