The Mancos Blue Jays will enter the 2016-17 season with a new head man.
After falling in last year’s regional tournament and finishing with a 9-13 record, former head coach Rodney Cox and assistant Rhonda Cox decided to retire.
Now, first-year head coach Ed Aiken and assistant Ben Lykins – whose name is a familiar one around the San Juan Basin League – will look to mold a young team that lost four seniors and its four top scorers from last season.
With the big man duo of Ro Paschal and Andrew Plunkett moving on to college, Aiken expects freshman Caden Showalter to hold things down in the paint.
“He’s kind of our big man right now,” Aiken said. “He’s about 6-3 and has good size and a strong base. He’s been our force inside so far in the early stage of this season.”
Sophomore Hunter Hoover will also play a part in the inside game, and while the Jays don’t have a ton of size, Aiken says they have good speed and hopes to use it to their advantage.
“At this point, I’m placing an emphasis on control and a controlled tempo,” he explained. “And we’re probably playing more conservative now in practice than I hope. I hope to get us to a more accelerated pace. It’s going to be a learning process, but I’d like to turn us into a more aggressive, running-style team.”
Juniors Caleb Yoder and Jake McKie will be the team’s primary ballhandlers in the backcourt, and Aiken expects fellow juniors Zane Wilson and Nic and Griff Huver to be key contributors, citing the twins’ defense.
“We’ll be looking to them for a defensive presence,” he said. “They bring a little more grit and toughness to our young team.”
With a big roster turnover and as a first-year head coach, Aiken expects his team to be underestimated this season. And while he anticipates Ignacio and Telluride to be two of the frontrunners in the San Juan Basin League, he said that the team’s goal this year is to take care of the basketball and be as competitive as possible.
“In terms of a broader objective about winning districts or whatever, I haven’t really thought about that or gotten that far,” he explained. “I want to get them to a place where we can play competitively with some of these older teams.”
The Jays are scheduled to open the 2016-17 season at the Rehoboth Tournament in Gallup, New Mexico, beginning Thursday, Dec. 1.