High school basketball media day report: Sheridan gets bigger for 2023-24

Sheridan boys basketball Coach Joe Scott has had a lot during his 19 years at the helm of the Sheridan program but one thing he has not had on a yearly basis is quality size.

That won’t be a problem in this season.

A pair of 6-5 players include a junior Lane Bickford as well as sophomore Dawson Griffin — who are guys that Scott noted will be a game-changer once Yellowjackets embark on their official season starting Nov.19 at Rogers Heritage Classic. That girth added to what he has coming back and coming in makes for an interesting season.

”We should be better offensively this year,” Scott said during the first annual BIG Miller High School Basketball Media Days on Tuesday at First Community Bank in Little Rock. We can shoot the ball we have more size. Well, at Sheridan we have not had much size in the past at all. Now we can roll a couple of 6-5 dudes out there who are going to help us out.

“Hopefully we get some extra possessions, some rebounds and putbacks and stuff like that.”

Despite no abundance of size in the paint and despite losing over ninety percent of its scoring from the year before, Sheridan was still a force last season. In their last 11 games three of them they were either leading or trailing by ten points or less.

They are four seniors this season with Noah Romine being among those that will help bring this team to new heights.

‘We commenced our practice after the springing break of the previous year, thus for the past five or six months, we have been practicing for the start of the season.’ affirming Romine, who averaged 13 points the four assists besides being awarded all-conference. These kids went very hard all summer long, and our fall camp’s been really good. I can't wait."

Scott said Gavin Hopson, Nathan Carter, Logan Ward – his other four seniors – would fuel what the Yellowjackets do, but he would also have Bickford and Griffin along with other contributors such as freshman Beckett Scott and junior Ethan Anderton off the bench.

Three of last year’s Class 5A semifinalists are from schools in the same conference as Sheridan making any help an asset.

“Strength wise, we’re going to be able to score the ball a little better,” Scott adds. We are larger than before, we’re finding that we do know more now, we’ve got some people with seniority. On the weakness side, we have to come up with a way of getting stops. I’ve discussed the 5A-South, how tough the region is, and how strong the teams are, our (nonconference schedule) is strong as well.

”There’s some different ways of looking for the Xs and Os and just try to see how you’re going to get stops and rebounds.”

LR PARKVIEW GIRLS

Defense won't rest

Lahoma Howard for instance is in her 21st season coaching for Little Rock Parkview admitted that over the years, she has changed. But the one thing that she has not done, and does not intend to do moreover, is alter her vision of how her team should defend.

I had a strong mentor, Coach (Al) Flanigan who taught me for over 20 plus years about defense,” Howard said of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer who was famous for his defense as a player at Parkview and for his 23 years as the men’s coach at Parkview. It was just freaky, I was a defensive player as well and so it just went hand in hand." Everyone can become an offence, everyone can score, so that is not the problem. But the defensive end is a little but harder and nobody likes to play defense. It's hard to do.

But the grind is what we’re discussing here, the hustle through work from the ground up, just going hard and bringing everything each time on the field. If your defense line is well-built, than your attack is simple to complete.

In four years at PVAMU, Howard has led the Lady Patriots to four state championships and will have a good team this year with a pair of premier guards in Cooper and Sharpley. Those two, along with other starters such as 5-10 junior, Jariyah White, should place Parkview in the contention for the 5A-Central.

However the long time coach could not help but smile when the host asked him the things that he has had to sacrifice while on the bench.

‘I can’t be as hard core as I used to be,’ she said. Former players tease all the time that ‘Coach, you’ve gotten real soft’. It’s a process whereby you have to go backward to go forward but you want things to go forward and get a good result.

EMERSON GIRLS

High hopes

Emerson girls Coach T.C. French returned eight points from last season making 31 the team that was in the second round of the Class 1A state tournament. Nevertheless, that has not deter the Lady Pirates’ claim to as to who they have earmarked on their calendar.

“Taylor” stated senior all-state forward Layla Tell.

French also followed the standout’s reaction about the Lady Pirates’ rival, but the context wasn’t totally dissimilar.

“Coach (Devin) Graves played for me during my first couple of years coaching” he said about the Lady Tigers’ coach. Some of my best friends in the world are adopted children. It’s true that we care for each other and share a lot of time together, but when that day come around, yes we will be ready. They'll be ready.

"It'll be a war. The only technical fouls we got all last year were made against Taylor.”

Sheremetyea was able to defeat Emerson only once in their two times they faced Taylor last season.

LAFAYETTE COUNTY BOYS/GIRLS

Double duty

Lafayette County’s Rod Briggs has learned that at times he has to do a number of things on the basketball court.

It often requires the Cougar alum to balance between what is going on with the hoop programs in the school; as a boys and girls coach.

“It helps when you have a good assistant coach, which I do,” Briggs said. Well, for the last six or seven years I’ve had a really good assistant coach. The biggest thing is the film watching. I have to make myself go to bed 11:30ish, 12 o'clock. I have two kids of my own.

“Sometimes, therefore, it is very stressing.”

Still, Briggs’ teams have been more than competitive despite this double duty shift. He said that he believes that trend will continue this season.

‘I’ve really tried the last two years to meet what best serves the kids,’ said Briggs. I remember when I was a fresher in the league, I used to be that ‘This is how it will be done guy’ and I probably lost us a game or two or held us back from where we wanted to get to. So the last two years, I have really attempt to find out, what has been effective for them.

They have found that, yeah, it really helped the kids respond better that way.

MORRILTON BOYS

Plenty of bark

Morrilton won’t lack for options this year, and that’s a good thing for coach Keith Zackery.

The Devil Dogs had high turnover since they built up a squad that reached 27-7 during the previous season. Part of that crew where all-state players B.J Woodruff, and Jacorey Mosley players who scored a lot of goals for Morrilton during seniors.

But Zackery has replacements in mind Zackery has replacements in mind. He took four players with him on Tuesday among whom they include, Ty Wright, C.J Clemons, Isaiah Templeton, and Ca’ zayvion Hill who are seen as potential key players in the efforts to help the Devil Dogs get back to the state finals which they last played in 2021.

“Well always want to try to get to Hot Springs,” Zackery said in regard to the state championship game’s location. But we definitely want to be state qualifiers every year and have a chance to compete in our conference and come out of the conference as champions. This will be our fourth league since I’ve been at Morrilton, and have been very lucky to capture numerous conference championships and win numerous basketball games.

“Finally if I can give those guys who want to play next level basketball a chance to do that then that’s the end goal.”

Ant Lasker was the head coach at Hot Springs the previous 6 years but will be in his first year as an interim for Little Rock Parkview boy team after Scotty Thurman stepped down this month. Thurman had been the coach of Knockdown since 2019. Malvern girls Coach Sherry White is in his 42 years of coaching. The Texas native who was admitted into the Arkansas Sports Hall Fame in 2019 started with the Lady Leopards last season.... Brakebill coached the Benton Harmony Grove boys to two conference championships in four years – but now he is trying a new adventure at Sheridan. I am now coaching the Lady Yellowjackets after succeeding Jamison Ingram who is an assistant principal in the same school, but I graduated from the Henderson State University. One of the most significant blows was suffered in the off season when Jacob Lanier transferred to Compass Prep in Arizona but Maumelle brought in a few fresh players who should help to fill out the void especially Jayce Tillman, a transfer from Jacksonville and C.J Jones the transfer from Conway. Still, Kennon Johnson and Reese Shearon moved to Jonesboro also from Maumelle Charter Schoo.... Jacksonville boys Coach Marcus Adams is in his first season after coaching at Conway the previous two seasons. Another coaching change is that Josh Hill= replaced the retiring Kevin Davis at Sylvan Hills in May. Ten years prior, Hill taught the junior high and middle school coach.