The Superior boys won’t play

their first game of the basketball season until Dec. 10, but

practice got underway on Monday, Nov. 22. Coach Bajin Smith said

that the team has 24 players out this season, ranging from seniors

to freshmen. Smith said he thinks the team will have some good

leadership from this year’s seniors.

“We’ve got RJ Frederick coming back as

a senior and Tanner Coon coming back as a senior,” Smith said.

“We’ve also got Roman and Kenley Zylawy who are seniors also. I

think we got some great senior leadership coming up this year.”

Smith also mentioned Aaron Lowman, a

new kid from Washington, who he believes will be a great addition

to the team. He said they’ve got a good ball player in Daylon Kuhl,

who is returning as a junior, and a good bunch of sophomores

including Billy Smith and Adam Kay. Smith also mentioned that Ryan

Bowers is returning to the team plays well below the hoop.

“This year, were coming back after not

having a good season last year,” Smith said. “We struggled a bit

and this season we’re trying to get back to the basics and build

the team up. I think it’s going to take a while, but it looks real

positive.”

Smith said that they are building on a

new offense and defense. He said that the team will run a high

intensity defensive effort whether it is man-to-man or zone.

“I want to keep it simple, but I want

to keep the intensity level way up,” Smith said. “I think we’ll run

a lot of traps and try to confuse the offense of other teams, but

again we want it to be simple.”

He said that there’s not a lot of

height, though there is some. He said that they will run a pretty

fast offense and try to keep the kids moving and spread out. He

said that also on the offensive end they want to be patient and

wait for good shots.

“One of the weaknesses I think we have

is moving the ball down the court,” Smith said. “But we have some

good ball handlers who are sophomores.”

The boys will play Charlo on Dec. 10

and Smith said they will be a tough team right off thebat with a

fast offense that will press them a bit.

“They’ll be tough and they’ll be fast,”

he said.

Smith that that the team’s biggest goal

for the season is to stay positive and he wants the kids to figure

out where they want to be at the end of the year.

“With just two wins last year, we have

a lot of rebuilding to do,” Smith said. “We have some fundamentals

to weed through and I just want to keep the kids positive and make

it fun for them. The disadvantage is sometimes having fun is

winning, but we want to try and peak at the right time and that’d

be districts and divisionals.”

Smith said that the team is in a tough

conference and will have their work cut out for them this season.

Still, he said they are happy to be out playing on the courts.

“We’re excited. We have great older

players, but we have a lot of work to do. After the first couple of

practices, we’re excited about what we might do this season,” Smith

said.