Blue Jay boys welcome back several key players

Blue Jay boys welcome back several key players

Dec. 9, 2000

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

Gary Hill begins his 20th season as head boys basketball coach at Mancos High School.

"I’m really looking forward to this season," he said. "We have a real good bunch of kids who like each other. They are a great bunch of kids to be around. They already have good chemistry. That’s what makes me excited about this season."

The Blue Jays have only two seniors and one of those seniors, Jesse Rousett, missed most of last season because of an injury.

"We will be very young but we have some good kids," Hill remarked. "They are working hard and anxious for the season to begin."

Starters right now are 5-foot-9 sophomore point guard Clint Hill, 6-1 junior swingman Kelley Smith, 6-3 senior wing Bill Baker, 6-2 senior forward Travis Clark, and 6-0 senior wing Rousett. Smith also missed all of last year because of a broken leg he had suffered a year ago fall in football.

Reserves are 5-8 sophomore Chase Davis, 5-11 soph Preston Hennrich, 6-1 junior Kyle Yeomans, 5-10 junior Nick Rubino, and 6-4 junior post Ryan Shepherd.

Defensively, Hill has been using a couple variations of a matchup zone (1-3-1 and 2-3) for many seasons.

"Right now it depends on the situation and how quickly these kids develop. Not having Jesse there last year and not having Kelley there last year, plus the other new ones, it takes time to get good at using it. It’s a slow process but we will use it as the season goes on," Hill added.

Offensively, the Blue Jays have always liked an uptempo game. They like to push the ball up and down the floor. But they also don’t mind being patient to set things up.

"You can run and gun but you’ve got to make sure you’ve got a bullet. That type of game is always fun but you’ve got to make sure you have the kids who can run it. If the time is right, we will try to push the ball," he noted.

The basic weakness of the team, at least right now, is the lack of overall varsity-level experience.

"Our strength is that they really like each other and they like to play the game," Hill commented.

The team should has good rebounders, or at least the potential to be. Overall this may be a better shooting team than in past seasons. Several of the Jays, including Baker, Rousset, and Clark have nice shooting touches. Hill said that in the past the school has had spotty shooters but this one seems to better up and down the roster.

"We can go nine deep," Hill said. "We have good depth, better than we have had in the past. I’m very pleased with the depth we have."

Mancos lost to Ignacio 59-50 on Tuesday night, Dec. 5, to open the season. They host Bayfield around 7:30 p.m. today, Dec. 9, in the Mancos Performance Center. They visit Aztec, N.M., to play the Tiger JVs on Dec. 14. They return home for their annual week-long Blue Jay Classic Dec. 18-23. Mancos will be joined this year by always-tough Farmington High JVs, Montezuma-Cortez High School JVs, and Ignacio. Mancos will play on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday of that week. They host Ignacio on Jan. 5 and visit Bayfield on Jan. 6 to close most of the nonconference portion of the slate.

"The league should be a good one. Nucla is the team to beat. Nucla has been at State the last four straight years and has almost everyone back plus a transfer from last year’s team. Dolores County has some good players. But we think we will be right in there," Hill said.

They open San Juan Basin League play at Dolores County (at MCHS) on Jan. 13 and then home to Norwood Jan. 19. They visit Nucla on Jan. 20 and then host Telluride Jan. 26. A trip to Dolores ends the month on Jan. 27. They take a break from league action to play MCHS JVs at home on Feb. 1. Then it is back to league play with a home date against Dolores County Feb. 3. They host Nucla Feb. 9 and travel to Norwood Feb. 10. The Blue Jays round out the regular season at Telluride Feb. 16 and at home Feb. 17 against Dolores.

The District III Basketball Tournament is set for MCHS on Feb. 23-24. Regionals is slated March 3 and the Class 2A State Basketball Tournament for Pueblo March 8-10.