WINTER SPORTS PREVIEW: Senior-laden Eagles ready to soar in ‘12-’13

By Chris Miles

Sports Editor

It’s been said that a team is only as good as its seniors. If that truly is the case then the Madison-Plains boys basketball team could be in for a special season.

Golden Eagles coach Jeff Spradlin is high on his team’s chances this winter and a lot of that enthusiasm stems from the fact that he has collection of seniors who have earned their wings as varsity players over the last few years.

The Eagles’ Brooks Carter is one of many players back for Madison-Plains this season.

“I’m really excited about this year,” the coach said. “We have a lot of seniors and letterwinners back. We went into last year pretty young, but all of our starters were juniors and they’re back now.

“There’s just something about having seniors as your best players. When you have younger players there’s a tendency to have more youthful mistakes. But that usually changes when you have experienced seniors.”

With a team dominated by juniors a year ago, the Eagles posted a 9-12 record and was eliminated from the Division III Central District tournament in the first round. If the team can get and ultimately stay healthy this year, there’s a chance that the squad could be celebrating many more victories during the 2012-13 season.

“We expected a few more wins last year,” Spradlin said. “But the league was tough and we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be.”

The Eagles will once again turn to the likes of senior forward Ryne Davis and senior guard Steve Lemieux to provide leadership on and off the court.

“This will be Ryne’s fourth year on the varsity,” the coach said. “He’s a defensive stopper and has got a nice outside shot.”

“Steve was a first team All-SCOL player last year and was the top vote getter for the entire league..”

Lemieux, who missed some time during the football season with an illness, is expected to be back on the court in the coming weeks.

Also back in the mix this season are senior forward Brooks Carter, senior sharpshooter Damon Glispie and senior post Alex Williams.

Spradlin expects his team to once again play its uptempo style which will play to the team’s strengths of speed and quickness.

“I think we’ll look to run quite a bit,” the coach said. “We play kind of a Kentucky-style offense where we play fast. We like to get the rebound and go. We’re not the biggest team but we’ve got good speed and quickness.”

Spradlin expects his team to be among the schools competing for a SCOL title at the end of the year.