RIDGELAND PANTHERS
Don’t be too surprised if the Ridgeland boys’ basketball team is wearing those “Hello. My Name Is” stickers on their jerseys for the first few weeks of the 2020-2021 season.
Longtime head coach Matt King has coached some young teams in the past, but maybe not to the extent that will be wearing the Black-andWhite this season.
Ridgeland has just one senior on the roster and very limited experience in the junior class, while the bulk of names in the program will be players who were suiting up for their middle school teams this time last year.
But while it will definitely be a challenge for King and a learning experience for most of his players, there is also an undercurrent of optimism about the future of the program.
“We’re so young,” King said. “We have 9-10 freshmen (in the program). We typically don’t get that many freshmen each year, but these kids are hard workers and we could have four or five of them that end up contributing a lot (this year).
“There might be some growing pains early, but since I’ve been here, I’ve not had a bigger group of younger kids that just really want to play and they’ve got some talent. We’re really blessed this year. How they develop, we’ll just have to see.”
King, like virtually every coach in the state this season, is also dealing with getting his team ready for the season after not having much, if any, of a summer after COVID-19 put the brakes on off-season practices, scrimmages and camps.
“I’m sure all coaches will say this, but not really having a summer is really challenging, particularly if you’re planning on playing (sever
al) freshmen,” he explained. “(Nov. 3) was just our fourth practice after tryouts and we’re just getting them to know how to do the drills. That’s something you usually do in the summer, so
that’s taken up a little bit of time. We’ve also had to incorporate more scrimmaging in practice, something I would very rarely do, just to get them comfortable playing a little bit.
“But I’m also excited. These guys are hungry. A lot of guys aren’t playing football, so they’re just excited to be out here playing team sports right now.”
The Panthers will have just one senior on the roster in post player, Kobe Lewis. A hustler and hard-worker on both ends of the floor, Lewis was a Catoosa-walker County Dream Team first team selection last season as he averaged 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds to go with over one block and nearly two steals per game.
“One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Kobe is that he’s like a big brother to everybody,” King said. “If someone hasn’t been fully rotated into a drill, for example, he’s quick to tell me that that player needs to get in or whatever the case may be. He’s had two solid years with us (on varsity).”
Shooting guard Kyan Clark will also be called upon for leadership. The junior poured in 11.8 points a game as a sophomore to go with two steals and almost three rebounds a night.
“He, along with (the graduated) Ethan Moyer, was one of our better shooters last year and he’s going to be relied on to do a lot of that again,” King added. “We got a lot of younger kids that can shoot the ball though, so it looks like we’re going to be fine there. Still, Kyan will give us experience and stability and he’ll really help us on the press break.”
Zack Harrison also has some previous varsity experience and will be another shooting guard, while the other juniors are small forward Carter Platt and shooting guard Toyriec Morris, both in their first season with the varsity program.
A small sophomore class will include guard Dakota Stone and shooting guard Aiden Jones, while a very large freshmen contingent will feature shooting guard Matthew Ramsey and point guard Chase Hickman, along with post players John Hill, Judd Anderson, Anthony Baldwin and Andrew Johnson.
Ryan Pipes will serve as the
main assistant on the bench, while Abby Bates will help out with team fundraising.
King believes his team will be strong at the point guard spot and in the number of good shooters on the roster, but it’s depth that could end up being a surprising strength for his team in the long run.
“Even though it’s young (players), we’ve got about 10 guys that we’re going to put in the game that we feel comfortable that can contribute,” he added. “Now I don’t have any doubt that the game is going to move way too fast for some of them at first, but we just have to grow together and develop chemistry.”
The coach added that this year’s success might not always show up on the scoreboard, but in the process of learning how to win and play as a team rather than basing it solely on wins and losses.
“This team is going to be good in a couple of years, but they might not experience a lot of (success), ingame, this season,” he added. “Still, we may see some steps in that direction, so they’ll have a lot of motivation going into, hopefully, a NON-COVID summer. That’s what I’d like to see. But it’s a really good group of kids though. They’ve done everything that I’ve asked.”