El Dorado to start season Tuesday at Pine Bluff

Terrance Armstard/News-Times In this file photo, El Dorado's Brendan Simmons takes a shot during the Wildcats’ game against J.A. Fair at Wildcat Arena during the 2018-19 season. The Wildcats open the 2019-20 season Tuesday at Pine Bluff.
Terrance Armstard/News-Times In this file photo, El Dorado's Brendan Simmons takes a shot during the Wildcats’ game against J.A. Fair at Wildcat Arena during the 2018-19 season. The Wildcats open the 2019-20 season Tuesday at Pine Bluff.

Fans attending El Dorado games will need to get acquainted with several new faces on the roster.

With just four seniors on the roster, coach Gary Simmons will have one of his youngest teams during his tenure with the Wildcats, who open their season tonight at Pine Bluff.

“I love it, especially this summer when we had all of the football kids,” Simmons said of working with the younger group. “It’s a really exciting atmosphere because they’re coming in just full of energy and trying to prove themselves.

“Then you’ve got the old bucks like Brendan (Simmons) and Jarmel (Love) and (Jordan) Tubbs and some of that bunch that are trying to show who the big dogs are.

“It really led itself to some very good competition this summer and a lot of tough practices and kids getting after each other. That’s the thing that I think is so good this year.

“In the past couple of years, I think that Czar (Perry) and Daniel (Gafford), especially B.J. (Brenden Johnson) and Joe (Joderrio Ramey), they kind of intimidated the other younger kids around them.

“There was kind of a pecking order. These young kids have come out and they may get beat 20 in a scrimmage, but they’re getting after our seniors and our older kids. That’s making us better every day.”

With so many underclassmen on the roster, finding consistency has been a challenge.

“I’ll definitely say they are a different group,” Simmons said. “They really are. In practice every day, one of the young kids will really step up and have a good day.

“It’s a different kid every day that really steps up and contributes. We’re not real consistent yet as far as our younger group, but my seniors have been showing a lot of maturity, a lot of leadership every day in practice.

“They’re pretty consistent. A lot of what they’ve got to understand is who to get the ball to sometimes. When Brendan is hot, he needs the ball. This summer when Jarmel was scoring inside, we got him the ball.

“The young kids are wrapping themselves around that, and I think in the second semester, we’ll be a really, really good basketball team.”

The Wildcats will rely heavily on Brendan Simmons, a senior who averaged 10.4 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game, as well as Jarmel Love, a junior who averaged eight points and five rebounds.

However, the Wildcats will not have senior Jordan Tubbs at the start of the season.

“We kind of built everything around our two returning All-Conference players, but Jordan Tubbs, a really nice player, will not be available until the second semester,” Simmons said.

Simmons singled out seniors Jamalzia Thompson and G’savion Levingston for their work in the preseason.

“He (Thompson) played a tremendous amount of JV minutes, but he didn’t play a ton of varsity minutes, as did G’savion Levingston, who we’ve had in the preseason this year. He didn’t play football this year, so we’ve had him for the whole preseason. Both of those kids have made great strides,” Simmons said.

“David Ayree is a sophomore that’s done a really good job in the preseason. Lamonte Lewis has been doing a super job for us in practice. We’re just going to be kind of a different team.

“We’re going to play a lot of kids, and I figure, especially in the second semester, Jarmel and Tubbs will do the majority of the scoring, but we’re going to need everybody to bring their ‘A’ game every night.

“We’ve just been trying to teach the system to some kids, and we’ve changed some things up. We’re working more pick-and-roll and doing some two-man game stuff.

“It’s going to be a challenge. It’s a tough conference. Some of the other sports we have, you can finish in the top six and get into state. In basketball, you have to finish in the top four, so it’s tough.”

As far as the 5A South is concerned, Simmons is expecting a dogfight for the top four spots to reach the state tournament.

“You’ve got to figure that coaches will come out and probably pick Hot Springs High School, who has got everybody back, to finish in the top place in our conference,” Simmons said.

“Lake Hamilton got hurt by graduation, but they always put together a really good squad. Benton is going to be tough this year.

“Lakeside will be young, but they’ll be competitive, and you never know about J.A. Fair. They’re always athletic and right there in the running, so it’s going to be tough all the way around.

“We can’t have any breakdowns. We need to do a good job. We need to beat Texarkana twice, we need to get Lakeside twice.

“We need to beat those other really good teams on our home floor, and we’re going to have to steal a couple on the road.”

If there is a key the Wildcats must have to succeed, Simmons said it will be staying healthy.

“I think we’ve got to stay healthy,” Simmons said. “Brendan and Jarmel have got to stay healthy. We’ve got to get a little better defensively, although we’ve had some really good defensive workouts.

“We’ve got to do a better job of rebounding. I think if we do that and everybody plays to where they’re supposed to be, I think we’ll have a good season. We’re going to have to have some other kids step up.

“This summer, Brendan and Jarmel averaged about 35 a game together. On some nights, it was more than that, but there were also some teams that figured that out pretty quick and tried to take them both away, so some other kids are going to have to step up.

“Isaiah Ramey had a good summer, just doing what he can do. He penetrates and does a good job of setting Brendan up.

“He and Jarmel have played good together since they were in pee-wee. It’s going to be big for him and big for Tubbs when he gets back in the second semester.

“A lot of things need to go well for us. We’re not going to roll the ball out and think we’re going to finish first or second in this league without getting better.

“We understand that we need to get better each day. This bunch has tried to do that every day in practice.”

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