Thunderbirds to depend on challenging schedule, speed

With a 23-11 overall record last season and a Final Four appearance in the state tournament, head coach Keane Guiden’s Guy-Perkins Thunderbirds have set a precedent they hope to live up to this year.

“We graduated a lot of talent from last year’s team, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this group responds …,” the coach said. “I expect us to compete for both a conference and regional tournament championship and make a run in the state tournament, just as last season.”

Guiden, who has a 71-127 career record in his 10 years as a coach, will be assisted by coach Nakeia Guiden as they lead the Thunderbirds in the 1A-4 Conference. Guiden has been at Guy-Perkins five years this stint, after coaching junior boys and girls for three years earlier.

The team has two returning starters — seniors Ashton Ealy and Aaron Passmore.

Guiden named seniors Sebastian Ealy and Colin Fisher as the team’s best inside players, describing Ealy as “a good rebounder with good footwork and an inside scoring presence” and Fisher as “an unselfish player, versatile, a good rebounder and a glue guy.”

The coach listed his best outside players, all seniors, as Ashton Ealy, a shooter who is quick, athletic and a playmaker; Passmore, who is a shooter, quick, athletic and a good defender; and Corey Terrell, who is strong, quick, athletic, a good defender and somewhat of an X factor for the team.

“All three of those guys are really good on the defensive end. … They like to play fast, which is right up my alley,” Guiden said. “This will be one of the fastest teams I’ve ever had.”

The coach said he expects team strengths this season to be defense, team play, quickness and athleticism. He said the team’s weaknesses will be size and depth.

“To overcome the size disadvantage, I tell our kids to play the game on our terms — up tempo,” Guiden said. “We try, as little as possible, to play against a set defense. We want to be in transition a lot. As far as the depth goes, we’re going to have to develop some guys trial by fire. … I tell my players, ‘You can make a mistake, as long as you do it at 100 mph.’”

The coach said he has put together a very challenging schedule against schools of all classifications. “That’s one thing our program is known for,” he said. “We don’t duck and dodge anybody. We’ll play anybody anywhere.”

He said two games to look out for are the season’s opener at County Line High School, at 6 p.m. Oct. 21, a rematch of the semifinal state-tournament game, and Feb. 3 at Marked Tree, a rematch from the second round of the state tournament last year.”

“County Line by far is the No. 1 team in Class A for a good reason …,” Guiden said. “We’re looking forward to tangling with them again.”

He said the Thunderbirds’ toughest opponents this season will be Wonderview, a twotime defending conference champion, and Nemo Vista, who beat Guy-Perkins in back-toback conference tournament semifinal games.

“We’re looking forward to getting things started,” Guiden said. “We’re kind of at this stage now where we’re tired of practicing against each other. We want to see somebody new. We hope to have a good year, to stay healthy, and we hope to be there at the end.”