Team Preview:
Written By: Ryan Lee
In their first season in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference the Nampa Bulldogs qualified for the state tournament. Despite their 13-14 record, they peaked at the right time and beat Boise High out of the fourth and final state playoff spot. It could have been a Cinderella run for the Bulldogs, but they lost a close, hard fought game to State Champion Post Falls, 52-51 in the first round.
Heading into the 2015-16 season the Bulldogs will be without their two best players from last season, in starting guards Blaine Roberts and JD Schutt. Both led Nampa in scoring last season and were honorable mentions for the conference. Returning this season are five senior from last year in senior point guard, Kooper Wilcox, senior guard Riley Brown, senior forward, Rob Davenport, senior guard, Taylor Becker, and senior post, Anthony Walker. Second year Head Coach Trevor Morris will lean on his seniors quite a bit more this season. Coach Morris knows they graduated a lot of scoring, but he hopes his returning seniors can play a bigger role this season and fill the void left by those who graduated.
Offense: Offensively, the Bulldogs want to be very patient in their sets. They have good play makers returning in Taylor Becker and Kooper Wilcox. These two guards will need to help the rest of the team to establish tempo on offense, and to help the team to get high percentage shots.
Defense: Coach Morris has always had a defensive mentality when coaching. This season, he wants his team to be mentally strong on the defensive end. We go into every game knowing that the guy next to you is going to do their job, but if they need help, the team will have their back. An area of concern again this season is rebounding, with such a guard oriented line-up.
Wrap-Up: Nampa’s team motto this season is Team Together. This group of seniors is the group Coach Morris coached when he was the freshman coach at Nampa, and then when he was the JV Coach, and again for some of them as last year’s Varsity coach. They are very familiar with one another and have been able to grow together as a team over the past three seasons. Coach Morris is excited to have this group again for one more year, and they are set out to do some very special things, including making it back to the state tournament.
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