(Greenfield) It’ll be a season of change for the Nodaway Valley boys basketball team this year.
Jeremy Blake was hired this offseason and the new head coach says the goal this preseason has been to get things done efficiently in practice. “Let’s get things done and let’s take care of business right way. Everything is going to be efficient. We are going to be moving around. We are going to be doing everything that we need to do. I don’t believe in conditioning in the middle of practice. If we are doing what we are supposed to be doing in practice we should have all of our conditioning and everything done there. I’ve got a really good group of kids, a good group of core kids back from last year’s team.”
He says the expectations are high with a good group of players. Nate Russell, Boston DeVault, and Avery Phillippi are returning starters. Matt Weber and Dawson Nelson also saw varsity action last year. “The little bits and pieces I’ve seen has me really excited.”
The group finished 14-9 last season. Avery Phillippi averaged 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Boston DeVault contributed 9.7 points per game.
Blake is looking to play fast with a strong defense. “Tough, hard-nosed man-to-man defense. I’ve been telling the kids already that you can’t be good at zone if you don’t have your man-to-man principles. We are going to make sure we are hammering that down. Practice is going to start a lot with defense first and building that foundation.”
The Wolverines start the season on Monday against Clarinda.
Nodaway Valley coach Jeremy Blake:
