By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
After winning 29 games and reaching the state semifinals in his debut season, Parkers Chapel coach Josh Langley now faces the unenviable task of having to replace a plethora of senior standouts that helped pave the way for the Trojans’ terrific season.
So far, everything has proceeded smoothly.
“Summer has gone really well,” Langley said. “Amari Bell is our only returning starter, but we’ve had some guys step up. We were just really inexperienced coming into the summer. At Harding (University), we hung with a lot of teams, we were just coming up a little bit short.
“We saw some of those some teams again at (Hot Springs) Lakeside, and we were able to flip it on them and win some of those games that were coming up short at the Harding camp. We lost all those guys. I knew we were going to be a little bit different as far as seeing what style of play is going to fit us best. We’ve done a lot of maturing over the summer, and we’ve gotten a lot better compared to where we were at the end of the last school year.”
Although the Trojans will certainly feel the impact of the departing senior class, they do have several players back that are expected to take large roles this year.
In addition to Bell, seniors Isaac Evans and Zack Williams are expected to be in the mix along with juniors Caleb Jacobs, Preston Stivender and Terrell Malone.
Stivender in particular will be someone to keep an eye on.
“I’m expecting some big things out of him,” Langley said of Stivender. “He’s one of those kids that may score six points or go for 26. He’s one of those guys that can go off at any moment and have a huge game for us.”
Langley is also expecting a big contribution from his underclassmen with sophomore Evan Younger expected to play a key role for the Trojans.
“Evan Younger will see a lot of playing time,” Langley said.
“He’ll add some size and physicality inside that we’ll be missing with Amari being probably our only true big. J.T. Phelps wasn’t on the junior high group, but he’ll probably see some minutes to get those guys some rest.
“We only have three bigs, and J.T. isn’t the biggest, but he goes in there and plays hard. Nik Garcia will give us a shooter.
“He can light it up when he’s on. Trace Shoup and Edison Thompson will also give us some minutes out of that sophomore group. Trace, Nik and Evan have played really well over the summer. I feel like we’re going to be really deep this year.”
When asked what the biggest difference is between his first year and what he is contending with in his second season, Langley said it’s size.
“Last year, we had a lot more size,” Langley said. “We were 6-1 across the board in our starting lineup. Then we brought in 5-11, 6-1, 6-2 off the bench, so we lost a lot of that size.
“We’ll be a lot smaller this year, but we’ll be a lot quicker. We’ll be different in some ways, but we’ll do a lot of the same things, we’ll just be a lot quicker at it.”
Langley added that maintaining progress from the summer will be vital to the Trojans’ success.
“I’ll be able to get in the gym with the basketball-only kids and work on some stuff,” Langley said. “It’s going to be just finding time to get in the gym and get some shots up.
“Even the football guys come in and shoot some free throws. That way, they won’t lose some of the progress that they’ve made over the summer.
“We’re adding some stuff that’s new, so it will be a quick learning curve for those guys coming out of football. The guys have done a pretty good job of catching on to the new stuff whenever I’ve thrown it in there for them.
“I think we’re going to be fine. The conference will be a lot tougher this year with some teams dropping down and some others improving.
“We’re also adding some schools from 1A that made it pretty deep in the playoffs.
“Our conference is going to be pretty tough, but I feel like our kids are ready for the challenge and can compete with anybody.”