The Mt. Zion braves varsity boys basketball team finished last season with a record of 14-0 against teams within the Apollo conference.
The Olney/East Richland Tigers finished 11-3 within the Apollo conference and an overall record of 32-4.
With the success of these two teams and an overall difficult conference, for the varsity Charleston Trojans to be successful they will need to get contributions from all their players.
The Charleston Trojans boys varsity team finished last season with a 8-20 record, including a 1-13 record in the Apollo Conference. Last year, marked the first time in five years that the Trojans did not have a winning season. If the Trojans are to be successful within the conference, they will need to find their offensive strengths and weaknesses early in the season.
” Our big strength is our competitiveness. Our practices have been very competitive and if that continues then we should be successful,” said Charleston varsity head coach Trevor Doughty.
” We focus our practices around effort and executing our offensive and defensive plays,” said coach Doughty.
Execution will certainly be important to an offense that averaged 54 points per game last year. Charleston also didn’t have good free throw or three point percentages. They connected on 60% of their free throw attempts and shot only 27% from behind the three point line.
” Last season, we didn’t shoot like we had wanted to from the three point line or the free throw line,” said coach Doughty. ” In the off-season we certainly had the players practicing their form and paying attention to shot selections.”
Last season, in the Apollo Conference the Trojans finished in eighth place. Within the division five teams finished with a .500 or above winning percentage (Mt.Zion, Olney, Effingham, Newton, Salem). Charleston will be relying on their competitive team play to keep pace with the other teams in the conference.
The varsity Charleston Trojans are returning one starter (Jamel Johnson), five seniors, six juniors, four sophomores, and two freshmen. Last season, Johnson was Charleston’s leading scorer with an average of 14.7 points per game. He also led the Trojans in rebounding with 9.5 rebounds per game. Johnson’s numbers have been good enough to catch the eye of Salem head coach John Boles.
” Johnson is simply a load for a defense to try and handle. When he is in the game he is certainly a difference maker,” said Salem head coach John Boles. ” We anticipate a very tough conference with Mt. Zion and Robinson probably being the early favorites. Charleston should also be able to contend with some of the size of their players they have this season.”
The Salem Wildcats finished last season 14-14, with a 7-7 record in the Apollo conference.
” We don’t have a huge amount of experience at the varsity level between our players, so we are going to need some of our younger players to step in and contribute,” said Doughty. ” We do have some depth with players like Derek Hennig, Sean Parker, and Dylan Rose, so I feel we are going to have to compete at a high level to make up the difference.”
Historically, Charleston has ran a six or seven man rotation, but due to the players lack of varsity experience coach Doughty is considering a deeper rotation.
Coach Doughty credits the off-season program for the teams early toughness and competitive nature. During the summer, the boys basketball team participated in 25 conditioning sessions that have helped bring out the competitive nature in the team.
” The summer sessions really helped us install what we wanted to. The first two weeks of practice are focusing on fundamentals and execution. At this point, I really like our competitive nature and our hard play,” said Doughty.
