GREATER EGYPTIAN CONFERENCE

Projected Order of Finish 1. Carrier Mills 2. Crab Orchard 3. NCOE 4. Gallatin County 5. Galatia 6. Thompsonville 7. Hardin County 8. Pope County

BY JACK BULLOCK By winning four consecutive GEC regular season titles – the Carrier Mills Wildcats have reigned supreme in this conferences’ recent history. Last season was perhaps the best of the run as Coach Motsinger’s 'Cats made it all the way to the Trico Class 1A Sectional final before losing to Okawville, 40-34, to end its season at an outstanding 26-5 overall. The win total was a school record for the most in one season. As for the conference as a whole last winter – three other teams (NCOE, Crab Orchard and Hardin County) finished above the .500 mark. Of course that made sense since each of the eight teams play each other twice, which increases the chance of four of the teams having a losing record. Norris City-Omaha-Enfield pulled one of the bigger upsets in the Class 1A Regionals last season as the Cardinals topped highly regarded Waltonville, 68-64, at the Zeigler-Royalton Regional in the semifinal round. Coach Doug Miller’s crew lost the following night to Sesser-Valier to end its season at 20-10. Both Hardin County and Crab Orchard posted first-round regional wins last season. All four of these teams have some players back from those successful squads. There are three new coaches that will be taking over in the GEC. Brandon Chaplain takes over at Thompsonville for former coach John Robinson who had a very good run leading the Tigers. Pope County needed a new coach this winter and found one in Don Gines who teaches at Dongola. Hardin County also has a new coach in Brett Oxford. ABV doesn’t know much about either other than they face adversity in trying to rebuild those respective programs. Gallatin County has some young kids for head coach Robert “Radar” Patton to work with. As for the 2009-10 season Carrier Mills will be hard pressed to make it five-in-a-row with the talent that returns in this conference. But it is very possible. 1. CARRIER MILLS The Wildcats have dominated this league for the past four seasons but the main players of that run have left via graduation. Coach Mark Motsinger sent away four important seniors who represented the bulk of the scoring and rebounding from its regional championship team from last season. Luke Morgan – a 6-foot-5 senior forward – led the team with 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds a contest. Dallas Beeding – a 6-foot-3 senior swingman – added 13.5 p.p.g. and 6.3 r.p.g. Morgan and Beeding were ABV Class 1A All-South First Team picks. Guard Ryan Nichols and forward D.J. Campbell (15 points a game combined) have also departed. Those are some hefty numbers that must be replaced. However Carrier Mills has produced excellent teams recently and it wasn’t some sort of accident. Coach Motsinger has the program flying high and two important varsity players are back for a senior season that could also be very special. Wyatt Kirkland – a starter from last season – returns after finishing third on the team in scoring with a 10.4 points per game average. Kirkland is a 6-foot guard who could run the floor well and finished a lot of fast breaks for the Wildcats last season. Jordan Miller – a 5-foot-8 senior guard – helped run the offense last season and those duties will increase along with his minutes on the floor. Miller put up 6.6 points as his numbers in 2008-09. One other senior started a couple of games last season as a junior for Coach M. Jordan Jackson – a 6-foot-2 forward/center – helped out on the inside last winter in reserve of Morgan and Beeding and should nab one of the starting spots as the Cats open their season at the Vienna Tourney the week of Thanksgiving. Following those three – Carrier Mills has some good players back with a shot at varsity glory. This group drilled all of the GEC JV teams last season in winning the league title. Raeshawn Ward – a 5-foot-10 senior – should also get a chance this season along with 5-foot-11 junior Chase Craig. Five-foot-eleven senior JR Brown and 5-foot-11 senior Dillon Harrison wore varsity uniforms last season and should see an increase in minutes this winter. Four other players Motsinger mentioned should get a slice of this pie. Six-foot-three Corbe Morgan – along with 5-foot-10 Colin Crim and 6-foot-1 Clayton Stucker are all sophomores who played a lot as freshman last season in the undefeated JV run. Six-foot-three Josh Smith is a junior who also returns. ”We will be expecting a lot out of our returning guards Miller and Kirkland,” said Motsinger – a newly anointed member of the IBCA Hall of Fame and author of over 500 basketball wins. “Our JV team went undefeated last season but how that will translate into varsity success is a big question mark. The conference will have a lot of parity with the top five teams almost too close to call.” OUTLOOK – Coach Motsinger won’t make the call but ABV will. Until someone knocks these kids off the block – they are still the champs. Carrier Mills has two good guards back and some younger players ready to step up. It is true that JV success doesn’t always mean varsity success the following year. But in this case and in this league it can and will. Both Crab Orchard and NCOE look ready but Carrier Mills looks solid as well. Success has a tendency to produce more success as time goes by. Unlike national politics and economics – winning does successfully “trickle down.” Take the Cats to be right at or near the top of the Greater Egyptian Conference by season’s end. 2. CRAB ORCHARD Head coach Jon Brown may not agree but the consensus among coaches and ABV is that the young kids playing for the Trojans deserve a mention in the GEC championship chase in the preseason projection. Crab Orchard played very well at times last season and several young players are back from a 17-13 club that won a regional game before falling to Goreville in the regional semi’s last February. Coach Brown will need to replace three seniors from last season but this mentor played enough underclassmen a season ago to set up a smooth transition into the 2009-10 season. Ty Fauver, Ryan Anderson and A.J. Hutchins are gone but the returning players are in line for an even better season. Adam Perry has been around for three previous varsity seasons and is back for his fourth - a senior year in which he could help lead this team to a GEC title. Perry is a 5-foot-11 “banger” who can play inside against bigger kids and hold his own. He topped the Trojans scoring parade last season with 13.9 p.p.g. and was the teams’ second best board man with 7.1 r.p.g. Having a good senior guard around is always a plus and Crab Orchard has one in 6-foot Lorence Killen. This one was the clubs’ assist runner-up as a junior and chipped home 3.4 points a game. He will probably get more opportunities to score this season. Coach Brown has several other players who will all "basket-brawl" for playing time in preseason practice. However look for a pair of second season standouts to be in the lineup coming off really good freshman seasons in varsity action. Ben Kissing – the third of three brothers to excel at this high school – is a 6-foot-5 sophomore center who notched 11.9 points a game with most of those points coming in the lane. Having played against some strong post players last season in the GEC and non-conference contests – Kissing should be even better as a sophomore. Kissing topped the club with eight rebounds a game last winter. Drew Johnson – a 5-foot-9 sophomore guard – also logged a lot of time on the varsity floor as a frosh. His numbers were also good (7.9 p.p.g., 2.4 r.p.g.) and was the top card dealer in handing out 6.2 assists a game. It will be difficult to keep those two off the court when the season opens in the Crab Orchard Thanksgiving Tournament. Coach Brown also mentioned Brandon Boester – a 6-foot junior – who had modest varsity numbers but is capable of grabbing a share of the varsity minutes. A sophomore guard – 5-foot-6 Coty Wece – and a junior guard 5-foot-6 Adam Emery – will be in the running for backcourt spots in the starting lineup. Jordan McGuire – a 5-foot-11 junior forward – should help give the Trojans some much needed depth and could end up starting some games. ”This team has some experience and depth and a lot of players in the mix for minutes,” said Coach Brown. “We are still somewhat of a young team with three sophomores expected to see significant playing time.” OUTLOOK – One might say that the best seasons are ahead for Crab Orchard with the good youngsters in the program. But ABV believes that there is no time like the present. This group will need to defend better and take better care of the basketball if they are going to catch defending champ Carrier Mills or hold off the challenge of a very good NCOE club. This sophomore group blended in well with the vets last season and the relationship should be even better this season. The Trojans have never won a regional title in boy’s basketball. But with the change to four-classes – this school might be thinking post-season hardware in the next few seasons. 3. NORRIS CITY-OMAHA-ENFIELD The Cards return four good players who spent a lot of minutes in varsity a year ago returning for head coach Doug Miller in 2009-10. However three really good ones will be missing after graduating in the spring. Those three are Nicholas Mitchell (ABV Special Mention), Levi Hart and Zack Halfacre represented 31 points a game collectively from the 20-10 group that lost to Sesser-Valier in the title game at the Z-R 1A Regional last February. Coach Miller turns to a trio of senior guards in what looks like a small - yet quick - line up of Fighting Cardinals as they look to begin the season by defending their Grayville Thanksgiving Tournament title from a season ago. Jordan Weiss – a 5-foot-10 senior guard – is the top scoreboard operator of the returning crew from last winter who averaged 9.5 points a game. Five-foot-nine senior Cody Etienne added 5.5 p.p.g. as a junior while Seth Short – a 5-foot-8 senior – threw in 2.3 per night. Those three players will likely end up being used in a three-guard lineup for Coach Miller this season. In the frontcourt NCOE has one player with some size mentioned by Miller as a potential starter. Six-foot-four senior Matt Kerns added 4.3 points a game last season and was third on the club in rebounding at nearly four a game. After those four there will be a battle for the fifth starting spot from untested junior varsity kids. “We lost a lot of points and rebounds from last season’s team and it will take a team effort to pick up the slack,” said Coach Miller – a McLeansboro native who has led this program to a 36-19 mark in the past two seasons. “Our kids play very hard and if we can play good team basketball we will have a chance to compete and win several games.” OUTLOOK – ABV believes a prediction of several games is a bit of an underestimate. Coach Miller does a great job with this program and double-digits in wins should happen again this season. The Fighting Cardinals won the Grayville Tourney last season and also ran the consolation table at the Eldorado Holiday Tournament. They will miss those three graduated seniors from last season but the kids back have some experience. NCOE will challenge for the GEC title – regular season and the tourney. Mark it down. 4. GALLATIN COUNTY The Hawks didn’t do much flying last season – stumbling in with just a 7-20 overall mark with just four wins versus ten losses in the GEC. Gallatin County could be the most improved team in the league this season with a fine senior guard back and a very good crop of freshman entering the prep scene after a very good eighth grade run in 2008-09. Head coach Robert Patton returns one of the conferences’ top guards in Jared Hunt – a 6-foot senior vet - who averaged 15.5 points a game to lead the Hawks last winter. He was the team’s only double-digit scorer however he should get a lot more help this season. Returning for Gallatin County is a 5-foot-9 senior guard Brody Lowery who added 8.8 points a night. Those two have the making of a very good starting backcourt as the Hawks jump into a tough opening week at the Crab Orchard Thanksgiving Tourney. Sophomore guard Caleb Jones (5 p.p.g.) will also be in the starting line up in all likelihood. Six-foot-two junior Adam Westbrook also is back for the Hawks and this one is one of the players Coach Patton will look to for additional offensive help. After those four look for the incoming “greenhorns” to have a say in the rest of the minutes. Five-foot-ten freshman Dane Hish has a lot of ability and this one should emerge as the fifth starter as the season begins. The Hawks will look small and quick in that lineup in which opponents might find it hard to match up with. Six-foot-nine freshman center Andrew Drone could be a “diamond in the rough” for this very good coaching staff to work with this season and beyond. Anthony Storto – a 5-foot-9 freshman guard – could also help out straight away as the season begins. Six-foot-two freshman Patrick Lowe might be the best athlete of the group while a pair of sophomores – 6-foot-1 Andrew Cox and 5-foot-9 Bryant Aud – may also grab some of the minutes early in the season. Aud averaged 4.9 p.p.g. last season as a freshman reserve. “We will have a young team with a pair of senior leaders (Hunt and Lowery) running things for us,” said Coach Patton. OUTLOOK – This club could end up being pretty good by the end of the season and become a factor in the GEC race. However they are going to have to handle the ball better than the 2008-09 team. Last winter the Hawks gave away the ball far more times than it took it away. Gallatin County committed twice as many turnovers than steals and nearly four times as many TO’s to assists. Shoring up the sloppy play must be a top priority heading into the 2009-10 season. Athletically they can play with everyone in this league. 5. GALATIA The Bearcats – under a new coach last season – stepped up with a solid second half that resulted in an 11-15 overall finish and a respectable 6-8 in the GEC. That’s not too shabby for a team that had only four seniors in the program. Coach Bob Bedford orchestrated a seven-game win streak in the second half of the season and held there own in a narrow loss to Waltonville in the first round of the Zeigler-Royalton 1A Regional last February. The four seniors mentioned (Ryan Augustyniak, Ryan Moore, Dalton Pickering and Andrew Wallace) represented most of the minutes and points for the varsity last season. But the group that Coach Bedford has returning looks to build on last season’s late run. Two seniors and a junior all started games for the Bearcats throughout the 2008-09 season and those three bring experience to the floor. Denton Reed – a 5-foot-11 junior guard – is the leading scorer returning after popping home 14.2 points a night as a sophomore. He was the top assist man last season as well with a 5.1 average. The two seniors returning – a 6-foot guard Kobe Watson and 6-foot-3 Joey Cullum – added 13 and 6.5 points per contest respectively. From last season’s roster – Galatia doesn’t look very deep. There were a pair of sophomores last season on the sheet that as juniors could see more PT. Five-foot-eight Kody Tennison and 6-foot Weston Fulkerson - could end up playing minutes this season as well as Josh Moore – a 5-foot-10 sophomore and junior Clayton Baggett. As for the rest of the uniforms – those kids will sort themselves out in preseason drills. “I’m expecting a good season this year because we’re returning three starters which includes our leading scorer,” said Coach Bedford who played high school basketball at Ridgway back in the 1970’s and SIC in the 80’s. “I think getting off to a good start at the Grayville Thanksgiving Tournament will help us carry over into conference play.” OUTLOOK – Galatia may end up being the most improved team in the GEC this season. The three returning starters will carry the burden of changing the attitude at this program back into a winning one like is was a few seasons ago. How well they can defend and rebound this season – especially against the teams listed above them here – will determine their eventual spot in the GEC standings. 6. THOMPSONVILLE This school also has made a coaching change after Coach John Robinson resigned last spring and was replaced by his top assistant and former player Brandon Chaplain. Chaplain has some assistant coaching experience under Robinson and the transition at Thompsonville should be ok. This coach led the group he is going to lead this year last winter as the junior varsity unit will lose the JR tag as the 2009-10 Chaplain campaign embarks. This coach will have his JV point guard running the varsity offense this season as 5-foot-8 junior Scott Gaither steps up. Gaither managed to get into some A-Game action last season but much more will be expected from him and his cohorts this winter. If you are looking for “Zach’s Or Better To Open”, then the Thompsonville club has a good pair in Zach Lindsey and Zach Fisher. Lindsey is a 5-foot-10 junior guard while Fisher is a 6-foot-2 junior forward. Both have ability - according to Coach Chaplain - and should be ready to start the season in the lineup. Another junior on the list with JV minutes from last season is 5-foot-11 junior forward Dale Pack. Thompsonville has one player with some size and he will be in charge of clogging the paint. Nick Sullivan – a 6-foot-4 senior – will need to do a lot of damage on both ends of the floor for the Tigers to have any sort of success this season. Coach Chaplain has three players he is looking for to help out his starting five. Brandon Orrill – a 6-foot-3 senior forward – is expected to be the first Tiger off of the pine. This coach also listed 5-foot-7 freshman guard Brady Householder as another that could help out in a reserve role. Ditto for 5-foot-11 junior Riley Taylor who didn’t play as a sophomore. Those eight look to be the core of the 2009-10 edition of Tiger-ball. “This year is going to be a learning experience for our whole team because we have a new coaching staff and no returning starters from last year,” said Coach Chaplain – who was a starter on a very good 2003-04 Thompsonville team that won 20-games and reached a regional championship game. “One positive will be that all of the junior varsity starters will make the transition to varsity. So they are used to playing together and they will be used to me coaching them. I look for our point guard Scott Gaither to really be a strong point and to lead this time.” OUTLOOK - Some good news about this bunch is that they have played together a lot in the past few seasons. The bad news is that they combined for just over 100 varsity points last season and the minutes weren’t much more than that number. They are untested to say the least and the stern tests will come early starting with a very good Sesser-Valier team at the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament. They have a bit of size and some guards that – according to this coach – are pretty good. It remains to be seen if “pretty good” will cut it in this league this season. 7. HARDIN COUNTY These Cougars are heading into the 2009-10 season with several changes in the program. First and foremost one of the top players in the programs recent history (Travis Cowsert) has graduated after playing four seasons of varsity basketball at this school. He takes with him many awards including a second team spot in the ABV All-South Team from last winter. Another solid player from last season (Catlin Vaughn) has also graduated from the 10-12 overall crew that finished tied for third in the GEC at 7-7. Another change is in the head coaching position in which Robert Bell left for Chester and Brett Oxford takes over. Four other seniors left as well so hardly any players with experience return for the Cougars and their new coach. Oxford has zero coaching experience but he played for Hardin County a few years ago and knows what he is getting into. Three of the players he will put on the floor come the senior class. Six-foot-two senior Ryan Davis returns along with 5-foot-11 senior Dylan Davis. Another senior Charles Paskon – at 6-foot-1 – also should be in uniform. Josh Duncan – a 6-foot-3 senior – is a newcomer to the program. Six sophomores – all successful at the grade school level two seasons ago – should get a shot at minutes in 2009-10. Five-foot-eleven Brandon Flemmings, 5-foot-4 Garrett Flemmings, 5-foot-9 Kyle Holloman, 6-foot Joe McClenahan, 5-foot-10 Garrett Hays and 5-foot-7 Tony Parkinson represent the present and future of the Cougars program. OUTLOOK – Losing one of the top players in the GEC from last season won’t help matters. Having a new coach take over just a few days before the season begins hurts even more. The Cougars need guidance and leadership from a coach who doesn’t have much experience. If nothing else it will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out. 8. POPE COUNTY After this school showed the door to a very good basketball coach a few seasons ago – the Pirates ship has basically been rudderless. Since Ryan Fritch had his coaching duties removed from him after the 2007-08 season – Dave Roberts took over for last season and the results weren’t very good. Pope County went just 8-19 overall and finished tied for last place with Gallatin County. While the Hawks look to be improved this season the same can’t be said for an inexperienced Pirates’ crew. Four seniors and nearly all of the points hauled out of dodge leaving a lot of rookies to fill uniforms and roster spots. New coach Donn Gines has a lot of experience coaching (22-years) at all levels. He will have a tough job this season to keep Pope County from the bottom of this conference. First off he will have to replace those four seniors who hogged most of the minutes from last season. Brett Butler, Ethan Billington, Trevor Thompson and Gusten Wallace were the main players on a team that bowed out to the host Blackcats at the Goreville 1A Regional. The Pirates will have two seniors and one junior back according to this coach. The seniors on the list as juniors last season consist of 5-foot-10 Kyle Benard and 5-foot-11 Jake Butler. The sophomore that has turned into junior is 6-foot-3 Stephen Simmons. After that it is inexperienced freshmen and sophomores to fill the bill. The two sophomores are 5-foot-10 Timmy Broadway and 5-foot-9 Tevis Sandefur. A "boat-load" of Pirate freshman have survived the preseason workouts and will be part of just 12 kids in the entire program. Coach Gines will look to Corey Risen – a 5-foot-11 freshman – to potentially start varsity games this season. Add Bruce Dunlap – a 5-foot-9 freshman – as a potential starter. The other freshman listed could end up playing varsity and junior varsity games in any combination. Five-foot-ten Dallas Cockrum, 5-foot-1 Adam Shuhardt, 5-foot-4 Kyle Wise, 5-foot-5 Tyler Thompson and 5-foot-8 Corey Kennebrew will get uniforms and will obviously see minutes at some level this season. You should notice that there isn’t much height on the squad and so Pope County and Coach Gines will need to work to use quickness to win games this winter. ”We will have some quickness but we will be short on experience,” said an understating Coach Gines who has had high school head coaching stints recently at Century, Joppa and Thompsonville. “We also won’t have a lot of depth or height to work with. Where will our bench help going to come from? The kids out for the team that stuck it out during practice are all working really hard which makes it easier going to practice.” OUTLOOK – If this group works hard maybe a few wins will accumulate and some sort of winning foundation could come about in the near future. Single-digit wins would be very well received.