Coach Has High Expectations For Cards

WAITSBURG - Waits­burg Prescott boys basketball begins a new era in 2012-13. Gone is T.J. Scott and two trips to the Spokane Arena in three years.

In his stead, enters new coach Tavis Crittenden who takes over with high hopes for more hardcourt success.

And though Crittenden-a native of Long Creek, Ore. and one-time Blue Mountain Com­munity College player-may be new to the program, his cast of returning varsity letter winners is not. It is that player experience which should make the transition from one coach­ing era to the next a much smoother one.

WP returns starters are Stir­ling Eastman and Dalton Es­New both seniors, and Cardinal reserves are Chance Leroue, Devin Acevedo and Owen Lanning-all sophomores.

Crittenden projects his start­ing five as Estes, at point guard, Eastman and senior Seth Deal at wings, senior Logan Dozier at the high post and Leroue at the low post.

"Estes is the heart of the team," said Crittenden. "He's our leader, and the best to the basket. But he'll be coming off of two sprained ankles from football. Stirling is a great outside shooting threat. Both he and Seth. Seth is one of the hardest workers I've seen, a phenomenal shooter, and he runs the floor hard too,"

Eastman, like Estes is still nursing an injury from foot­ball- a dislocated finger suf­fered in the state semifinal game. Until he is fully recov­ered,

Crittenden plans to start Lanning at the wing.

"Owen is a typical gym rat," said Crittenden. It's hard to kick him out of here each night. He shoots the ball well, and he's al­ways going 100 miles per hour. You've got to love that."

Acevedo will see time both on the wing and inside at post, and be WP's first man off the bench. Crittenden deems Ace­vedo "his most versatile player" and able to play inside because "he's much stronger than he thinks he is."

Crittenden calls starting high post Logan Dozier "solid" and notes his greatly improved strength after a year of concen­trating on the weight room.

"(Dozier) cleans up the loose balls and the junk for us and will score off the rebound," said Crittenden.

WP's best rebounder may be Leroue, however. The most important underclassmen for the WP football team this year, Leroue's combination of height, strength, and vertical leaping ability has Crittenden smiling. "He's an extremely good rebounder. When we go to single post sets, he will be the post," Crittenden said.

The rest of the WP squad consists of senior post Zach Brown-"a guy with a great mid-range jumper who will provide instant offense off the bench", junior post Nate Bartlow-"super strong with excellent leverage," sophomore wing Luke Alexenko-"a great three-point shooter" and junior wing Kyle Dozier-"with improving driving ability," ac­cording to Crittenden.

The Cardinals will employ a 1-3-1 motion offense this sea­son, and hope to capitalize on fast break opportunities.

"On defense we want to run man-to-man primarily," said Crittenden, "but we will fall back into zone out of presses when we use them. Dalton (Es­tes) is our most aggressive de­fensive player and will provide excellent ball pressure for us."

The new coach doesn't know a lot about the league other than what he sees on film. And he's not sure which kids are back and which aren't for his opponents. Regardless, he expects the league to be tough and his team to be right there fighting for the top spot.

WP's first game was Tues­day at Colfax. Its first home game is slated for Friday versus Weston-McEwen.

WP Boys Basketball

Stirling Eastman

Dalton Estes

Keanu Pang

Seth Deal

Devin Acevedo

Kyle Dozier

Owen Lanning

Chance Leroue

Zac Brown

Logan Dozier

Nate Bartlow

Luke Alexenko