High school basketball preview: Clearwater Indians (+video)
Schedule
December – 4, at Kingman; 7, at Chaparral; 8, Hutchinson Trinity; 12, TBA; 15, at Circle; 18, Collegiate.
January – 5, Andale; 8, Mulvane; 12, at Wellington; 15, Campus; 19, at Winfield (G); 20-23, Chaparral tournament (B); 26-30, Sedgwick tournament (G); 29, Winfield (B).
February – 2, Rose Hill; 12, Circle; 16, at Collegiate; 19, at Andale; 23, at Mulvane; 25, Wellington.
Boys
Coach: Dustin Clevenger, sixth season
Last season: 8-14
Top players
Brandon Bates, 6-2, sr., F
Collin Ellis, 6-1, jr., G
Konner Wells, 5-11, jr., G
Bryce Gibbs, 6-0, sr., G
Jaylon Headley, 6-3, sr., F
Clearwater’s jump shooters will still get their chances this season, but Clevenger wants to test out the novelty first.
Clevenger looks at his three players 6-foot-3 or taller – including 6-foot-8 Kincaid Liebenburg – and sees a cure to Clearwater’s scoring woes. Clearwater had a perimeter-oriented offense during an eight-win season, so Clevenger wants to improve the odds.
“Our kids have really grown and matured, and we have some size this year that’s kind of a luxury,” Clevenger said. “We haven’t had a lot of size the last couple years, so we’ll try and run our offense inside-out and try and take advantage of some easier shots inside.”
Clearwater didn’t top 46 points in any of its first four games last year but started 2-2. The defense mostly remained steady, but the offense was inconsistent and Clearwater was derailed by a five-game losing streak between December and January.
The added size, Clevenger believes, will help both facets. High-percentage shots and disrupting ball-handlers will help Clearwater play more in its comfort zone.
“We’re really long, so with that length we’re going to try and get after people full-court and the half-court by creating traps,” Clevenger said. “Creating some easy opportunities to score by using our size and our length.”
Clearwater won’t be all brawn, though. Guards Bates and Gibbs, who missed most of last year with a football injury, are expected to be catalysts in multiple areas.
“Brandon is a hard-working kid,” Clevenger said. “He’ll get on the glass and make the extra pass, and he’s not really concerned about his individual scoring. Bryce would have played a lot for us last year. …He’s athletic, he’s very strong defensively, he’s quick, and we’re looking forward to seeing him healthy.”
Girls
Coach: Dirk Ankerholz, first season
Last season: 2-19
Top players
Hayley Reibenspies, 5-6, sr., G
Lexi Cotham, 5-5, jr., G
Alli Klausmeyer, 5-9, jr., F
Elise Oberlechner, 5-7, sr., G
After a two-win season, Clearwater wants a fresh start. The presence of Ankerholz gives the Indians no other choice.
Ankerholz, Clearwater’s football coach, has never been a head basketball coach – only an assistant. He has no preconceived notions about how good his first team can be, and that might be just what Clearwater needs.
“The Xs and Os, and things like that, you have to kind of work your way through,” Ankerholz said. “I have an idea of what we want to do, but you never know if it’s actually going to work out or not.
“When you become the head coach, you get to do what you think is best. You get to follow your own ideas, and hopefully they work out for you.”
Ankerholz’s idea is for Clearwater to become a more effective defensive team. That wasn’t necessarily an area of weakness last year, when Clearwater surrendered more than 60 points once and lost 12 times when allowing fewer than 45 points.
But with a workable foundation already in place, Ankerholz wants to make the defense a greater X-factor.
“Some of these girls are actually pretty good defenders,” Ankerholz said. “They have the opportunity to cause some other teams some problems on the defensive end of thing. I wouldn’t call us pure shooters or anything like that, so we’re going to have to play good defense and keep the scores low.”
Jeffrey Lutz
This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 8:37 AM with the headline "High school basketball preview: Clearwater Indians (+video)."