High school basketball preview: Cheney Cardinals (+video)
Schedule
December – 4, Trinity Academy; 7, Collegiate; 10, at Valley Center; 12, TBA at Cheney tournament; 15, Medicine Lodge; 18, Conway Springs
January – 5, at Garden Plain; 8, at Chaparral; 12, Independent; 15, at Bluestem; 18-23, Halstead tournament (B); 28-30, Haven tournament (G).
February – 2, Garden Plain; 5, Chaparral; 9, at Belle Plaine; 12, at Trinity Academy; 16, at Medicine Lodge; 19, Douglass; 23, at Conway Springs.
Boys
Coach: Lee Baldwin, fourth season
Last season: 19-5
Top players
Brandon Jones, 6-1, sr., G
Noah Schomacker, 6-3, sr., C
Chase McGuire, 6-0, sr., G
After advancing to the state tournament, the instinct may be to desperately hold onto everything that made the season successful.
Even Cheney’s reliable components are slipping from the Cardinals’ grasp, thanks to a pair of football injuries. But Baldwin isn’t one to hang onto the past, anyway, even when the future is uncertain.
“I don’t even know what we’re going to look like Game 1, who’s going to start or what,” Baldwin said. “The last couple years we’ve pressed and got up and down, but I don’t even know what type of team we’re going to have or what type of style we’re going to play.”
Baldwin’s adaptability has helped Cheney to a 52-16 record during his three seasons and a Class 3A tournament berth in March. He may need to expand the outside-the-box approach to get the most out of a team that lost Austin Wheelock and Trent Scheer to knee injuries during football season.
“Having the success we’ve had the last three years, success breeds that expectation of, ‘Next guy up,’ ” Baldwin said.
Wheelock will miss the year and Scheer is expected to return near Christmas. Without them, Cheney will turn to seniors Jones, Schomacker and McGuire, who aren’t used to heavy minutes but will have to be just as flexible as their coach.
“Those two guys (Schomacker and McGuire) have always been in kind of a complementary role,” Baldwin said. “Now they’re going to have to be the guys. We’re not going to win most nights if one of those guys doesn’t play really well.”
Girls
Coach: Rod Scheer, sixth season
Last season: 9-12
Top players
Haley Albers, 6-1, jr., C
Torrey Lonker, 5-8, sr., F
Kirsten Campbell, 5-9, so., F
Miranda Ortiz, 5-6, jr., G
From a statistics standpoint, Albers has conquered the ones next to her own name. Four times last season, she scored at least 24 points with 15 or more rebounds on her way to averaging 14.8 points and 11.1 rebounds.
Now Albers takes aim at elevating Cheney’s team numbers. The Cardinals had nine wins last season, but Albers has the skill to help them achieve more.
“She’s the type of kid that wants to get better,” Scheer said. “She’s that type of kid, and she’s not going to let anything bother her. She wants to get better, she wants the team to get better. She was a little bit of a surprise (to opponents) last year – this year she’s not going to be a surprise.”
Teams may have begun to figure out Albers over the final month last year, when she had one double-figure rebounding game and was held below her scoring average seven times in eight games.
Scheer said Albers has planned against a similar letdown by adding elements to her game that are less susceptible to opponent adjustments.
“She’s improved her perimeter game this year,” Scheer said. “It’s not like she’ll be taking threes, but her 12-footer, her 15-footer, her elbow shot and stuff like that. That’s a different threat that she can do.”
With Albers as the foundation, Scheer said Cheney should be a superior defensive team. Lonker, the only senior, can be as tenacious as Albers is imposing.
“I think we’re a lot better defensively, quickness-wise, with a year of experience,” Scheer said. “We’re going to try to play some more man(-to-man), try to press more, and take advantage of our quickness and our experience.”
Jeffrey Lutz
This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 9:03 AM with the headline "High school basketball preview: Cheney Cardinals (+video)."