Isiah Essex runs the 18-in-1 drill during Emporia High’s first boys basketball practice of the season on Monday. Players try to run across the court 18 times in one minute.
Emporia High boys coach Rick Bloomquist’s made the opening tryout of the EHS basketball season sound a little like a messy mass of Play-Doh that must — eventually — be molded into a museum-quality sculpture.
“This is evaluation time, obviously,” Bloomquist said. “... So we have a false pretense of practice at this point. We’re going to practice hard to try to make a team, whether it’s varsity or JV, so it’s a little sloppy. We divide up our sophomores, we don’t put everybody together. It’s a conglomeration of nothing right now. It’s just a conglomeration of hard work.”
Bloomquist and Spartan girls coach Bill Nienstedt led their teams — both the experienced returners and the hopefuls vying for spots — through about three hours of driills on Monday at the EHS gym. While Nienstedt and his team worked in the main gym, Bloomquist and Co. ran through their drills in the JV gym.
Most of what the Spartans got from their coaches on Monday were basic drills and tidbits of Basketball 101, such as Bloomquist’s “The key to an offense is making the defense move,” or Nienstedt’s “The skip pass should be hard to throw if you’re up in somebody’s grill.”
“It went pretty well, I thought,” Nienstedt said. “We had freshmen in here by themselves. We’ve gotta make some decisions there. We’ve got a few too many kids trying out for the freshman team, and we’ve got 24, I guess it is, competing for somewhere around 18 spots on the varsity and JV teams. I thought all the kids gave good effort today, both freshmen and the upperclassmen.”
The Spartan girls will have plenty of talent back from their 18-5, Class 5A state tournament squad of a year ago, but lose their top two scorers in Sadie Webb (12.9 points per game) and Nicole Naab (11.1), both All-Centennial League first-teamers. Key returners include junior Lindy Arndt — named to the All-League defensive team last year — as well as Alli Armitage, Hilary Heinrichs, Rachelle VanGundy and Lexi Hileman.
“I guess the main thing we want is we want to get... balance,” Nienstedt said. “We want to be able to score with post players and with perimeter players, and I think we have some kids who can do that.”
Senior guard Amber Miller works on a drill during Emporia High’s first girls basketball practice of the season on Monday.
The boys lose All-State selection Caydrick Bloomquist off of last year’s 15-11, Class 5A fourth-place team, as well as Brandon Childs and Troy Pierce. They’ll still be a guard-heavy squad, with point guard Taylor Euler, Jacob Torres and Bryce Childs. Euler, who broke his left hand during football season, practiced Monday without any wrap on the hand.
“Basically, what we’re trying to do is find a personality of the team, find a chemistry of the team,” Bloomquist said. “We’re not gonna miss Troy, we’re not gonna miss Cayd; they’re gone. I mean, I miss Wes Book every year. ... But we have to find our own personality; we have to find our own chemistry. What we have to do this year, we have to find a consistent inside game.”
Noise and commotion are the calling cards of early-season tryouts. Bloomquist and Nienstedt, to different extents, will have lots of work to do to mold their respective “conglomerations of hard work.”
“All we’re trying to do is put something together, we can get down the floor where I can watch the kids play in transition,” Bloomquist said. “... I enjoy practice, but these are probably the most frustrating practices, just for the reason that we’re in the situation that we’re in.”
Comments
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UsayULoveGod (anonymous) says...
How is Troy doing at Hutch anyone know ?
November 18, 2008 at 9:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Rogergreen (anonymous) says...
Heard Troy is Playing at Butler CC not Hutch !!
I aslo heard from a friend who refs , that caydrick is at Hutch
Juco. DNP last game ! WOW! cannot believe that ! I thought he was going D-1 ????
November 18, 2008 at 10:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slvrnblck (anonymous) says...
I enjoyed watching Caydrick but he is not D-1 quality. He is too small and doesn't play defense and is too streaky. He did have that scorers mentality which is good and he will probably do fine in college. If he can get his education for free...or at least part of it, all because he played ball, that is pretty good in itself.
November 19, 2008 at 10:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Rogergreen (anonymous) says...
I wonder how the team will look this year !
November 21, 2008 at 5:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
blackmild (anonymous) says...
i what to kown if the boys team will be depth team
November 22, 2008 at 6 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UsayULoveGod (anonymous) says...
They will be decent but they will need Canales to be Healthy and at full strength. He is one of the studs on the team , Skip , Taylor , Marcus , Childs, Essex , Canales , will be tough to beat.
November 29, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
teufelhunden (anonymous) says...
How about the girls.. U know if they well be as good as last year.. without the dissapointing end???
November 30, 2008 at 12:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )