Hurricane Basketball Begins Tuesday
That swishing sound you hear isn’t the wind, it’s the ball passing through the net. It’s basketball season and the tip off of the first game for the Monticello Hurricanes is set for 6 p.m. this coming Tuesday, Nov. 28, when they take on the Redskins from Social Circle at home.
Tryouts for the team just concluded last Friday. Head Basketball Coach Steve Spruell said, “We had an awful lot of kids try out, and we just finished so that doesn’t leave us a lot of time to get ready to play, but that’s the nature of basketball in a small school.”
Coach Spruell was very positive about the numbers and talent of returning players.
“We’re returning seven or eight guys who had a lot of playing time last year. And we’ll have some help moving up from the JV, so we feel good about our knowledge base and understanding of the system this year.”
The basketball team, just as the football team did, will move from Region 8-AA to 7-A this year. Coach Spruell didn’t seem to think this would provide any advantage, in fact, he explained that the new region could very well prove to be more competitive that the old one.
“We left a very competitive region and went to a very competitive region. Wilkinson County is preseason ranked as the number one team in the state.
They have four Division One players, two of which have already committed to Alabama and one to Oklahoma State.
Hancock is preseason ranked at number seven or eight in the state, and they have a player who averaged about 30 points a game as a junior. GMC has a player who has committed to Appalachian State. Twiggs has a new coach coming from Baldwin, who is a legend.
“So it’s easy to see that our half of the sub region will be very competitive, maybe even more so than the one we left. We finished the season last year with a record of 11-14. We lost a lot of very close games, but that happens when you start three tenth graders.”
The coach took a final moment to briefly speculate about the team this year.
“We’ll probably have some growing pains this year since we have a freshman who’ll be playing a lot. But I really feel good about our team this year. What that means as far as wins and losses, I don’t know. But we definitely feel like we have a chance to be a pretty good team this year.”