High school basketball preview: Valley Center Hornets (+video)
SCHEDULE
December – 3, Maize; 8-12, at Cheney Tournament; 15, Goddard; 18, at Andover Central.
January – 5, Arkansas City; 8, Eisenhower; 12, at Andover; 21-23, Valley Center tournament (B); 28-30, at El Dorado tournament (G).
February – 2, at Maize South; 5, Salina South; 9, at Goddard; 12, Andover Central; 16, at Arkansas City; 19, at Eisenhower; 23, Andover; 25, Maize South.
BOYS
Coach: Ty Unrau, first season
Last season: 5-16
Top players
Tyler Brown, 5-11, so., G
Nathan Brown, 6-0, sr., G
Ryan Garcia, 6-4, sr., F
Wyatt Lange, 6-0, so., G
Thayer Terwilliger, 5-8, jr., G
After graduating eight seniors, Valley Center will be young and full of new faces. Unrau, who was Douglass’ coach for five seasons, transitions into a tough AV-CTL II.
“We will have to play with discipline on the offensive end and find ways to grind out possessions on the defensive end especially in the paint with our lack of size,” Unrau said. “Our guys will need to have better execution on the offensive end with players taking quality shots and that’ll allow us to set our defense.”
Sophomore Tyler Brown averaged 11.6 points and nearly 2 assists last season. His older brother Nathan will also be a key part of the Hornets’ offense. He averaged nearly 8 points.
“Our inexperienced team must focus on execution and our discipline both offensively and in transition defense,” Unrau said. “We will need to communicate and not allow easy baskets when teams can set their defensive pressure. If we do those right then I think we’ll have a good season ahead of us.”
GIRLS
Coach: Trent Preheim, first season
Last season: 9-12
Top players
Kyli Webber, 5-11, sr., G
Kennedy Weaver, 5-3, sr., G
Bethany Reeves, 5-6, jr., G
Taylor Latimer, 5-9, jr., F
Emily Klusener, 6-2, jr., F
Preheim, in his first head-coaching job, likes the experience his team has had at the varsity level and says they will quickly be able to pick up a new system.
“I’ve been around the girls for a long time,” Preheim said. “I’ve been the boys assistant coach, so I’ve seen the girls in the gym for awhile and throughout the summer they all showed up and have put in a lot of work for this season.”
Preheim liked the athleticism and quickness he saw in offseason work. He hopes that the team’s quickness will lead to quick layups and scoring opportunities.
“We have a lot of soccer girls on the team,” Preheim said. “They like to run, so we’re going to let them do that. Fast breaks will lead to easy points for us and that’s what we’ll need to do, since we are so small.”
Preheim is worried about rebounding strength, particularly from post players, and thinks it’s a key to improving on last season’s 9-12 record.
Sean Boston
This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 9:49 AM with the headline "High school basketball preview: Valley Center Hornets (+video)."