White County Central faces early COVID-19 challenges

The White County Central boys basketball team started this season 3-0 before the district had to be shut down until Nov. 19. First-year head coach Jeremy Cude said this year will be chaotic and “at any time, we could be playing anyone just to get games in.”

“There will be some small changes [to our scheme], but the biggest issues will come down to how we handle all of the COVID-19 situations,” Cude said.

Cude replaced former head coach Ryan Koerdt, who coached at White County Central for seven years, winning 200 games. Koerdt led the White County Central boys team to a statetournament appearance during the 2016-17 season, marking the first time any WCC team had made it to a state tournament.

In May, Koerdt was named the new head girls basketball coach at Russellville High School.

Returning for WCC this year is all-state senior Dillan Hopkins. Cude said Hopkins is a “great shooter, slasher, finisher, passer and ball-handler who has tremendous athleticism.” Hopkins is 6-2 and can score from anywhere and always “wants the challenge of guarding the other team’s best players,” Cude said.

Also returning is senior Blake Dickerson, who started a handful of times last season. The coach said Dickerson is a physical defender and an inside-out scoring threat.

Cude said senior Drew House, who started at times last year, is an “athletic, hardnosed defender and a great rebounder and finisher.”

“We have a lot of quickness and athleticism,” Cude said. “White County Central has a lot of tradition that expects to win.”

The coach said junior Deklan Stevens is a good athlete and is scoring the ball much better this year. Cude said sophomore Edwin Rodriguez is “extremely quick, great in transition and is a very good shooter.”

“He can get to the rim and finish against much bigger opponents,” Cude said. “We have less size and depth than previous seasons, so we are having to play with more of a perimeter focus than [the players] are used to.”

Cude said Melbourne and Salem are the top picks for the conference.

“Hopefully, we will be able to avoid more issues with COVID-19,” he said.

“We’re just hoping to be able to complete the season in good health,” Cude said.

Conference: 2A-2 Coach: Jeremy Cude Assistant coach: Jesse McCoy 2019-20 record: 25-12 Returning starters: Seniors Dillan Hopkins, Blake Dickerson and Drew House