For the week of December 4 - 10, 2002

Carey brings speed, savvy to the court

Experience a plus for Panther boys

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Plenty of varsity experience and foot speed are likely to be the biggest weapons for the 2002-03 Carey School boys’ varsity basketball team that is ready to open its 18-game regular-season slate on the court.

Coach Dick Simpson, entering his first full year at the Panther varsity helm, will unveil the 12-player Carey squad Thursday, Dec. 5 when Oakley visits the Carey gym for a non-conference doubleheader at 6 p.m.

"We’re not very big so we’ll have to rely on our foot speed. We’re fairly fast, which should be one of our big strengths when everyone gets back healthy," said Simpson.

Carey is banged up with football injuries. Sparkplug Robbie Ellsworth and three-year varsity veteran John Saili both injured their knees in the football playoff game at Notus. Destry Simpson, another key senior, is still mending his knee injury.

But with nine seniors and three juniors, Carey is the most experienced squad in the seven-team Northside Conference—an advantage coach Simpson hopes to put to good use in Carey’s drive back to contention.

Carey, losing its longtime head coach Lee Cook to a reluctant mid-season resignation, suffered through a turbulent season last winter. They scored plenty (56.3 ppg), but gave up nearly as many (56.0 ppg) on defense.

The Panthers (11-10) won seven of their final nine regular-season games to earn the second seed in the Northside tournament, but they faded quickly with upset losses to #7 Camas County and The Community School.

Northside king Shoshone (20-8) ran the table with 15 league wins including its 70-53 championship game decision over Dietrich last Feb. 18, then the Indians fell to eventual state runner-up Castleford (25-2) in the Fourth District title game. Shoshone finished fourth at state.

But Shoshone graduated four All-Leaguers including sharpshooter Jackson Uhrig, and Dietrich (15-14) said goodbye to seven seniors including All-League second-teamers Chris Maughan and Mark Telford.

Graduation also took a toll on Bliss (seven seniors including Calib Burk), Camas County (five including Brandon Blodgett) and Richfield (five including Cade Norman).

And that’s one reason coach Simpson is saluting The Community School of Sun Valley, which lost only three seniors, as one of the pre-season favorites in the Northside. "Ketchum will be a toughie," he said. "And Dietrich has 12 on varsity this year."

Unquestionably, Carey is the favorite—having graduated only one senior. "That’s what I hear," said Simpson with a laugh.

Carey’s offense revolves around senior Shawn Hennefer, who averaged 16.7 ppg on the unbeaten Panther JV two winters ago and led Carey with 333 points (15.9 ppg) including 33 three-pointers last year.

Sharing the point guard position will be senior Destry Simpson (9.9 ppg), senior Robbie Ellsworth (6.5 ppg) and junior K.C. Rivera, playing varsity for the first time.

John Saili, a 6-2 senior, has been sweeping the glass for two winters. He averaged 7.0 ppg last year. But Saili has more help in the paint.

Up from the junior varsity are 6-3 Blake Surerus and 6-2 Ty Simmons, both juniors.

Coach Simpson said, "Blake brings us a little more toughness around the boards. Ty can play tough in the post position and he can also hit from the outside."

Although they aren’t really tall by basketball standards, 6-0 Stephen Jurgensmeier and 5-11 Kole Peck take up a lot of room. "Stephen and Kole box out well," said Simpson about the two Panther seniors.

Simpson said, "We’ll try to get our running game going with rebounds and then establish a good inside game. Hopefully we’ll be better shooting from the outside with Shawn, Destry and Ty."

Rounding out the roster are seniors Sean Cenarrusa, Seth Adamson and Joseph Patterson.

On defense Carey will focus on man-to-man and try to create turnovers with pressure defense. "Hopefully we’ll have 32 minutes of pressure defense," Simpson said.

Defense wins games. Just two years removed from placing second in the state tourney, Carey is a proven winner in the 1A basketball wars. Panther varsity teams boast a 195-96 record in 12 campaigns since 1991.

And they’ve done it by building a strong program.

Carey’s junior varsity won the Northside tournament for a second straight year with a 46-33 decision over Bliss. Many of the current Panther players played on the coach Simpson’s unbeaten Carey JV squad that was 22-0 in 2001.

On this year’s Carey JV coached by Hollis Pincock are Devin Simpson, Tadd Green, Tyler Cook, Bryan Hill, Brian Adamson, Luke Harmon, MaKay Nielson, Ben Nielson, Cody Hennefer, Bryson Ellsworth, Hugo Chavez and Max Adamson.

 

Holiday tournament Friday

Carey will be looking to make a better showing in its annual Carey Holiday Tournament this weekend.

Last year Carey lost its opener 50-45 to Oakley and dropped a 63-53 consolation game decision to Mackay. Glenns Ferry won last year’s holiday meet 60-50 over Oakley. In fact, the 2A Pilots swept the boys’ varsity, JV and girls’ varsity titles last year on the Carey hardwoods.

Joining Carey for the four-team boys’ varsity and JV tourney are 1A Mackay, 1A Hansen and 2A Challis.

Carey’s JV plays Challis Friday, Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the old gym and Carey’s varsity takes on Challis at 8 p.m. Friday in the new gym. Saturday’s JV games are at 5 p.m. and the varsity finals take place at 8 p.m.

 

 

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