El Dorado enjoys successful summer
With the departure of five seniors, El Dorado will have a lot of new faces when basketball season arrives.
For coach Gary Simmons, the summer has been about seeing where all of the pieces to the puzzle will fit.
So far, everything has been going smoothly.
The Wildcats played at Louisiana Tech to start the summer before hosting their own camp just prior to the dead weeks period.
Earlier this month, the Wildcats concluded their summer by going to Dumas.
Over the span of the three camps, the Wildcats lost only two games, falling to Bossier City (La.) at Louisiana Tech and Monticello in their own camp.
They went undefeated at Dumas, including a win over the hosts. El Dorado also picked up wins over Captain Shreve (La.) and Huntington (La.) at
Louisiana Tech.
“It’s been a good summer,” Simmons said. “We got beat twice and won 10 or 12 games. The best thing we’ve done this summer is our team practices have been really good.
“The kids are playing well together. They’re getting to know each other. Everybody is playing a role.”
The Wildcats lost plenty of firepower with the graduations of Brenden Johnson and Joderrio Ramey, but junior Jarmel Love and senior Brendan Simmons have shouldered the scoring load during the summer.
“Brendan Simmons and Jarmel Love have been leading us all summer in scoring,” Simmons said.
“Basically, we lost 40 a game between Jo and B.J., but Brendan and Jarmel have both been doing that and exceeding that a little bit. Both of those kids are scoring 20 a game at least.
“I know there’s a couple where Brendan went for 30-plus. He and Jarmel are working really well together.”
After getting some minutes last year as a sophomore, junior point guard Isaiah Ramey will have a big role to play for the Wildcats.
“Isaiah Ramey has been doing a great job of running the point,” Simmons said.
“He’s D-ing up, setting people up, doing what point guards should do. He played a ton of JV, then there were a couple of games where we had an injury or had kids out, and he got some good minutes. As far as sophomores go in our league, I thought he got some good minutes.”
Simmons also singled out seniors Jordan Tubbs and Jamalzia Thompson along with sophomore David Ayree for their play this summer.
“Jordan Tubbs and Jamalzia Thompson have been playing really well,” Simmons said. “It’s their senior year as well as Brendan’s, and they’ve been doing just a super job for us. Tubbs has been scoring some. He’s been in double figures most of the games and playing good defense. Jamalzia has been doing a little bit of everything. He’s playing good defense, he’s distributing the ball a little bit and he’s hitting his corner three real well. Our newcomer, David Ayree, has been scoring double figures in a lot of our games and getting us some big buckets here and there.”
Ramey, Tubbs and Thompson all got minutes on the JV squad, and that playing time has been beneficial to the team’s growth.
“Jordan and Jamalzia also played JV some last year, and anytime those kids get the chance to have the ball in their hands and do some things that they did with JV, it only helps with varsity,” Simmons said. “With only two starters back from last year being Brendan and Jarmel, we needed some kids to be able to step up and help them with the load that they’re bearing right now.”
The summer has been one of offense for the Wildcats.
“We were averaging over 70 points per game,” Simmons said.
“We’re putting shots up and we’re hitting shots, playing hard, getting lots of turnovers and steals. The kids have been working hard all summer. We really worked hard on strength in the spring, and you can really see it paying off right now as the summer is ending.”
Although the start of the season may be several months away, Simmons has liked the way the team has jelled over the summer.
“The thing about this team is they all seem to know their roles really well,” Simmons said.
“They’re getting along really well on the floor. They like playing together. They know what each other can do, and that’s a key right now. We’re at the point right now where we’re trying to play a tempo that’s even faster than what we’ve done in the past, so there’s been a lot of times during the summer where Brendan has played the point and Isaiah has been on the floor. It’s been a good summer. It’s been enlightening.”