BRADFORD EAGLES

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 25, 2009

LITTLE ROCK — BOYS Conference: 1A-2 South Coach: Heath Swiney, third year Last year’s record: 9-18 Returning starter: Senior Dakota Treece (6-3), averaged 12 points per game and 10 rebounds per game. “He’ll play post. That’s the only returning starter I got coming back.

I got a couple coming back who had playing time: junior Adam Sisson (6-0) and senior Josh Trobaugh (5-9).” Best inside players: “Treece will be our best inside player right now unless somebody surprises me," Swiney said. “Then I got another junior that’s on the bench, Mark Harmon (5-10), he’ll be an inside player, but he’ll have to come in and give me some minutes and some rebounds.” Best outside players: “It’s going to be a barrage of them. It’s mostly going to be a bunch of 10th-graders: Shawn Nelson (6-1), Jimmy Green (5-5), Eric Stevens (5-9) and Tyler Knight (5-9). These are all guys moving up from junior high. Right now we’re just playing by committee.” How will you match/exceed/fall short of your success from last year? “We just need to play hard and get better every game.

When you are playing a whole bunch of sophomores, you are just trying to get better by the time the district tournament rolls around. We’ll probably lose some games we shouldn’t lose, and win some games we shouldn’t win early in the year.” Strengths of team: “We play really hard. We can be down, and we still get after you. We don’t quit. And we play pretty good defense.

We play hard defense most of the time.” In a nutshell: “The sophomores have got to get better every game. These guys in 10th grade when I took over were seventh-graders. They’ve developed under me. [Swiney is also Bradford’s junior high boys coach.] They’ve gotten better every year. They got the potential, but when you move up to senior high it’s a different ball game. “We’re going to play hard, every time the clock’s turning. My kids are going to play hard, and that’s all I can ask out of them.’”GIRLS Conference: 1A-2 South Coach: Josh Grimes, second year Last year’s record: 17-12. Finished third in conference. Won district tournament.

Lost in first round of regionals.

Returning starters: Seniors Sarah Masters (5-8 forward), who averaged 14 ppg, and Ashley Sarrels (5-8 forward/center), who averaged eight ppg and six rpg; and junior Rebekkah Lewis (5-5 point guard), who averaged six ppg and five apg.

Best inside players: Masters and Sarrels along with senior Chelsey Garrett (5-6 forward) Best outside players: Lewis along with junior Felecia Garner (5-6 guard).

Strengths of team: “Last year we were real strong inside, but we lost some of our players down there,” Grimes said. “So we’re a little bit faster and a little bit quicker.

I think I’m actually going to have better guard play. I didn’t think I was because I lost two good shooters. I think depth atthe guard spot is another strength. We’ve looked really good defensively in the scrimmages we’ve played. We get after it on defense. That’s one of our big things.

We feel like if we can show up defensively every night we’ll be in every game.” Weaknesses of team: “Inside, with foul trouble, if one or two of my [inside players] get into foul trouble, we could be in big trouble,” Grimes said. “We’ve got to keep them out of foul trouble. Shooting could be a weakness at times.” In a nutshell: “We won the district championship and then got beat in the first round of regionals. We finished third in our conference and got on a little run and got hot late. We were 9-11 at one point and finished at 17-12.

How hot we got and then how we ended up at regionals kind of left a bad taste,” Grimes said. “They’ve worked really hard in the offseason. It’s been kind of a culture change here. They’re a little hungrier. It’s carried over into practice.

They are ready to go.”

EAGLES SCHEDULEOct. 20 ..................................@ Tuckerman Oct. 23 ..........................................Midland Oct. 27 .................@ South Side Bee Branch Oct. 30 ..................................... @ Concord Nov. 3 ..............................................Timbo Nov. 6 ....................................... Tuckerman Nov. 10 ..............................@ Rural Special Nov. 13 ........................................... Shirley Nov. 17 .................................. @ West Side Nov. 19 ..........................@ Rose Bud (Girls) Nov. 23 ........................................McCrory Nov. 24 ................................. @ Black Rock Dec. 1 ................................. @ Cedar Ridge

Dec. 4 ........................ White County Central

Dec. 8 ...........................Mount Vernon-Enola

Dec. 18 .................................... Cedar Ridge

Jan. 8 ........................................... Concord

Jan. 12 ......................................... @ Timbo

Jan. 15 .................. @ White County Central

Jan. 19 ...................................Rural Special

Jan. 22 .......................................... @ Shirley

Jan. 26 ....................................... West Side

Jan. 28 .....................South Side Bee Branch

Feb. 2 ........................................@ Midland

Feb. 12 ...................................... Black Rock

Three Rivers, Pages 144 on 10/25/2009