By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent
The Henderson County Colonel Boys Basketball team is looking to have success this season with some returning starters and improvement from the starting five.
The Colonels went 18-13 last season, going 8-4 in the 2nd region and 4-1 in the 6th district, as the Colonels won in the 6th District Tournament Championship game by taking down the Union County Braves 67-54. Then in the opening round of the 2nd Region Tournament the Colonels suffered a 63-52 loss at home against the Hopkins County Central Storm that ended their season.
Head Coach of the Colonels Tyler Smithhart is in his 11th season as the Varsity Head Coach of the Colonels basketball team. I was able to sit down with him and ask him a few questions about this 2022-2023 Colonel team. The first question I asked him was what his team is looking like this upcoming season and what players he thinks might have a big role this season, “Really like the way we look right now. You know we’ve had a lot of guys in and out. Today was a great practice because we got Cooper Davenport back. We’ve had Alec (Satterfield) out, we’ve had a handful of guys, that played a lot of minutes for us last year, out over the last few weeks but getting them all back together today felt good, it looked good. We return four of our top five scorers from last year. That hasn’t happened here since 2015, you know that season was a pretty successful one and I feel like this group has the ability to have a good run, not only in the regular season but to compete and make a deep run in the postseason as well. Defensively we’ve changed some of our schemes up, and offensively we’re trying to put these guys in even better positions to be successful. We’ve upgraded our schedule and made it pretty tough, so we’re going to test ourselves throughout the year and see where we stand. I really enjoy working with this group of young men, high character guys that listen and love the game of basketball and so it’s a pleasure to get to work with them everyday,” Smithhart added.
The second question I asked Coach Smithhart was what player has shown growth and improvement from last season to now and Smithhart responded with this, “Well without a doubt Gerard Thomas has put in a ton of work in the offseason, not only on his game but physically, improving his body, improving his stamina. I think here in the last two weeks he’s had two of the best weeks of practice that maybe I have ever seen him have, really excited about him. All of our guys have done a great job in the weight room. I think Cooper (Davenport) and Alec (Satterfield) both added some much needed weight and muscle. They’re still not big guys by any stretch but they’re wiry strong and I think that’s going to help them kind of withstand the grind of a varsity season. I’ve seen a lot of growth in terms of some of our role players, and guys that will sub(substitute) for us, Cole Branson and Trajdon Davis, both two sport athletes that physically have gotten bigger and stronger. Dwaine Moss I think spent a lot of time this offseason working on his game, and so not only our mainstays bigger and stronger Jake Rideout definitely added a lot of muscle. Some of those guys we’re going to count on to provide support off the bench, (and) I think all of those guys have physically improved their body and look more like varsity basketball players.”
The third and final question I asked Coach Smithhart was what are some of the team goals and expectations for this upcoming season, “This group of guys has decided they want to go to Rupp Arena. That’s what they’ve said and they’re not shying away from that, they said this is what we want to be about this year. We understand that’s a tall task but we’re going to be courageous enough and bold enough to dream that dream and try to work towards it everyday. Lyon County last year made a good run and won a first round game and got a ton of their scoring back. So we understand what we’re up against in the region, it’s not just Lyon County, the traditional power houses out of the eight district are good, Madisonville has reloaded, and our district is going to be tough as always. We’re excited about the challenges that road will present us but without a doubt our goal at Henderson County High School every year is to make it to Rupp Arena, but this group of guys has really embraced that, they’ve spoken that, they’ve shared that with each other. I think that just putting that goal and making that a visible, auditory I’m saying it out loud type of goal, they’re daring to dream that and I love that,” Smithhart replied.
I was also able to interview Colonel senior guard Gerard Thomas and ask him a few questions. The first question I asked him was what he felt like he had improved on this offseason, from last season to now, and Thomas responded with this,”I feel like I’m a better teammate. I have worked on my game a lot and I feel like overall my game has gotten better in all aspects of the game. Most definitely I feel like I’m more consistent and my mentality is way different than last year.”
The second question I asked him was what were his expectations for his team this upcoming season in his senior year, “Our expectations is we want to start off the year, you know get a couple (of wins) and get it going. Eventually we want to make a run for Rupp (Arena) this year,” Thomas added.
The third and final question I asked Thomas was what were some of his personal goals in his senior and final season as a Colonel and Thomas replied with this,”I want to at least hit 1,000 points and then I want to be all state and all region and if I can go for Mr. Kentucky (Basketball).”
The Colonels open up the season with Bowling Green tonight, November 29th, at home at Colonel Gym at 7:30 P.M.
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