By Dustin Armbruster
Hays Post Sports
Hays High will have to blend together experience and youth in the upcoming basketball season. The Indians have just two players on the roster that saw time in all 22 games. Seniors Trey Oakley and Izaac Fox are joined by fellow senior Dawson Ruder who played in 21 games. No other returning players appeared in more than 11 games. Those three are leaned on by fourth year head coach Sean Dreiling to show the young guys the way of Hays High basketball.
Through the first week of practice Dreiling learned that his team is competitive. “It’s bodies colliding and that’s really encouraging. We are really competing, getting after it, and getting better day by day.”
Dreiling also is looking for his team to be more versatile on defense while still leaning heavy on the man-to-man defense. “I thought we played hard last year. But at the end of the day the ball for the other team went in the basket too many times.”
Last year Hays fell one game short of the state tournament and finished 13-9. The Indians return 57% of the their scoring and 54% of their rebounding from a team that averaged 53 points and 28 rebounds per game.
Prior to the season opening on Thursday, December 4th with the Gerald Mitchell Hays City Shootout, Dreiling says his team needs to improve on putting the ball in the basket. “It’s been competitive. It’s been really physical. It’s been tough. There’s no officials out there. But the ball hasn’t gone in a lot this first week. Once we slow down, get our spacing correct, get the ball to the guys we need to get the ball to, things will look better.”
Hays opens their season against TMP. The games between the Indians and Monarchs will be the first basketball games held on the Maroon gymnasium floor. The first two games of the tournament will be played in the Gold gym.