by Rusty Ellis
Clay County Lady Bulldogs
After finishing as the one-seed and winning the District 7-A Tournament last season, the Lady Bulldogs looked the part of a team destined to make its third consecutive trip to the Class A State Tournament.
That was until they were upset by Clarkrange in the region semifinals and the season came to an abrupt end for head coach Matthew Walker’s squad. Even if the ending wasn’t what his team wanted however, there were still plenty of positives from the year as a whole.
“We lost a couple games early, and beyond that we were pretty consistent until the end of the season,” Walker said. “Then we kind of got upset in the region tournament, but overall, I would consider it a very successful season.”
Walker returns a trio of experienced seniors in Bella Ashlock, Halle Buford and Madison Hayes, who he’ll lean on for production and leadership throughout the campaign. Rounding out the starting five will be junior Laci Wix and fellow senior Kendall Matthews, who Walker also has high hopes for.
“This will be Kendall’s first opportunity in a big role, as she’s going to be playing some point guard for us,” Walker said. “Bella, Halle and Maddy played a lot last year and will be counted on with their experience throughout the whole year…Laci Wix got quite a bit of experience last season as well, so we’re starting four seniors and a junior. We feel like that group will give us a good shot to compete night in and night out.”
Beyond that, Walker feels like he’s got a lot of talent on the bench, but they’ll have to go through their lumps to adjust to the speed of the high school game.
“We’ve got two sophomores who will play a lot in Ella Eads and Baylor Walden,” Walker said. “Those two are very talented, and then we’ll have some freshmen who will push for playing time as well. I’m a big fan of playing a lot of people when I can, and I think that’s a big part of why we’ve never had to rebuild, because we’ve always had at least a little experience.”
It’s also a team that likes to rely on its defense, and this year is no different for the Lady Bulldogs.
Walker likes where his team is at on that end of the floor, and he believes there’s room for them to get even better.
“We’ve got some really good individual defenders, and I think there’s a lot we can improve on throughout the season,” Walker said. “We’re starting four seniors and a junior, and they’ve all bought in to how important that end of the floor is. I think we’re looking at a really good defensive team this year.”
It’ll take time for this team to gel, but Walker believes that making it back to Murfreesboro is an achievable goal.
“Our seniors have been to two state tournaments, and they’ve been to the district championship every year,” Walker said. “Beyond the district championship, it’s win-or-go-home. We want to make it back to Murfreesboro.”
Clay County Bulldogs
Much like the Lady Bulldogs, Clay County appeared to be rolling towards another trip to Murfreesboro after winning the District 7-A Tournament, but that all changed when they were upset by Knowledge Academies in the region tournament.
Now head coach Rob Edwards will be replacing his entire starting five, but high expectations still remain as they did a year ago when he had to replace Grant Strong, Jeff Spivey and Eli Smith.
“I felt like coming off a two-time Mr. Basketball winner in Grant Strong, Jeff Spivey and Eli Smith, our guys did a great job following them up,” Edwards said. “We won the regular season district, the tournament and then we got upset, but I was still really proud of the year as a whole.”
While many teams may flinch at the idea of having to replace that much production, Edwards is almost excited for the potential of what his current team can do. They don’t have a lot of starting experience under their belts, but they still have a solid core that’ll carry the production load for the Bulldogs.
“Nate Adams started a few games when I had a few guys get hurt,” Edwards said. “Lance Burchett, Andrew Smith, Weston Birdwell and Wyatt Browning will round out the starting five, and they’ll handle a bulk of the minutes for us as well…we’ll have some younger guys come off the bench for us as well, so as we travel down the path, we’re going to find out who we can rely on to step up.”
Playing younger players has been a calling card of Edwards for a good bit of his career, and this year is no different.
“I like to put players in good positions to succeed, so if I can put a younger player in there for a few minutes when there’s not a ton of pressure, I think that helps a lot down the road,” Edwards said. “They’re able to get comfortable and work on some things with their game and that helps us a ton.”
In a district that seems pretty open, nobody should be surprised if Clay County adapts right away to the team they have and finds themselves in the championship picture again.
After all, that’s Edwards’ main goal.
“The goal right now is to get my football guys in and get them back in basketball shape,” Edwards said. “Once they’re back, we just want to get guys comfortable and familiar with what we expect from them…when we get into district play, our goal is to win the district every year. I still feel like we can compete night in and night out. We want to go as far as we can.”