By Anvil Welch
awelch@joplinglobe.com
Jeff Williams, new boys basketball coach at Joplin High School, believes the Eagles have the ingredients for a successful season.
“We have eight experienced seniors,” Williams said. “This team has the makings for a very successful season. We look to be very competitive in the Ozark Conference if everyone buys into our philosophy.”
The Eagles just missed a .500 finish in 2008-09 in Tim Spiers’ fourth season at the helm. They were 12-14 overall and 4-5 in the Ozark Conference.
Three senior starters are among the seven lettermen. They are 6-foot-6 Phillip Davis, 6-4 Matt McCreary and 6-3 Derek Stokes.
Completing the veterans are 6-8 junior Evan Menke, 5-10 senior Zentrell Shannon, 6-2 senior Devin St. Clair and 6-1 senior Tevin Triplett.
Naming probable starters wasn’t a concern for Williams on Saturday.
“Those three returning starters look solid,” Williams said. “We have solid backups, too, and it’s creating good competition each day in practice.
“We’ll utilize more kids enough that we’ll have eight or nine in rotation,” Williams said.
“Menke and Brad Hefley (6-5 senior) are inside people (with Davis),” Williams said. “Shannon, St. Clair, Triplett and Nick Brown (6-3 senior) are guard-forwards (with McCreary and Stokes). We’re using McCreary, Shannon and Parker Maher (5-10 sophomore) at the point. Maher is coming on like crazy.”
Sanquez Moss, a 5-10 junior, and 6-3 sophomore Sam Williams complete a 12-player varsity roster.
“Experience, good size and speed are all a part of this team,” Williams said.
McCreary, an all-conference selection, averaged 15.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2.6 steals last season. Stokes and Davis averaged 10.8 and 10.2 points, respectively. Davis added 4 rpg and Stokes 3.8.
Williams said there were two things the Eagles must do to achieve their maximum.
“First, we’re trying to get our kids to play hard with high intensity for 32 minutes,” Williams said. “Second, we want everyone to develop an unselfish attitude.
“We’ve had a handful of guys who have put a tremendous amount of gym time into the off-season,” Williams said. “We have another group that has put a good amount of time into becoming a better athlete by participating in other sports and in the weight room. Both of these are very important to success.
“We’re making progress each day of practice in regard to learning a new system,” Williams said.
Williams is assisted by Sean McWilliams and Matt Crane. Plus, Jeff Hafer, former Eagle all-stater, is volunteering his services after recently stepping down as assistant at Pittsburg State.
Williams comes to Joplin after 27 years in education at Chanute High School. He’s a 1975 graduate of Chanute and has undergraduate and master’s degrees from Pittsburg State. He was the Chanute boys head coach for 15 years and logged a 206-135 record with two thirds and a fourth in Kansas Class 4A.
Joplin, seeded second, opens its season at 6 p.m. Tuesday against Monett in the 63rd Carthage Tournament.
