RINGGOLD TIGERS

out by sophomores Colin Mountjoy and Daniel Fow. Mountjoy can play anywhere from the 2 to the 4- spot, while Fow is another guard that is vying for minutes with the varsity team.

“We’re not going to be as deep this year as we were last year, especially with our experience,” Elkins admitted. “We’re going to be a little thin, so we have to be a little creative with our minutes and monitor the minutes everyone is playing, especially on some of these back-to-back nights. We’ll just coach them up to do their jobs and get everyone some minutes, but we also have to make sure we have the right guys on the floor at all times.”

The coaching staff will remain intact from last year as longtime assistant Clay Tyree returns to the bench, along with former Tiger standout Nick Scott.

Elkins said he thinks Region 6- AAA will be wide open this season and that his team has a good chance to get in the playoffs and perhaps even win the region title, as long as they stay consistent.

“We’re trying to bring energy to practice every day because we think you play like you practice,” he said. “We’re going to push each other because you can’t get better if you’re just going through the motions at practice. We hope we’re playing our best basketball in February. Last year, we played our best basketball in December and January and then we ran out of gas, so our mantra this year is to ‘get after it’. We’re not overly skilled, but we play hard and we want to be relentless competitors.

“There’s a lot of teams that could win the region or finish in that top four, but I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that any one team ( in the region) is better than the next team. The key for us is consistency and making sure we peak at the right time.”