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Skyview High School
School Info
Conference: 4A Southern Idaho Conference
Classification: 4A
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Head Coach: Aaron Sanders
Years as Head Coach: 8th Season
Previous Experience: Four years as a varsity assistant at Skyview and three years as a lower level coach at Skyview.
Record Last Year: 12-12
State Titles: 2005, 2006, 2009
Assistant Coaches:
Rich Sanders
Leon Vasquez
Rob Kielman
BJ Sorensen
Returning Athletes:
Kyle Pierce, F, 12
Trey Burgess, PG, 12
Isaiah Schlegel, G, 12
Jeff Freeman, F, 12
Jayson Hibbard, F, 11
Cayden Wright, G, 11
Chris Kielman, G, 11
Demonte Horton, F, 11
Isaac Casebolt, G, 11
MJ Salois, F, 11
Returning Players with Honors:
Jayson Hibbard was Second Team All-Conference
Cayden Wright was an All-Conference Honorable Mention
Key Players lost from last year:
Justice Cook. He was First Team All-Conference last season as a PG.
Incoming impact players:
Parker Jones, F, 10
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Team Preview:
Written by: Lucas Gebhart
The good thing about an inexperienced basketball team is there will come a time where that is no longer the case.
For Skyview, that time has arrived.
The Hawks finished last season at the .500 mark but they were young. They had talent, but that talent was still learning how to be talented.
This season, that talent now has experience, a combination every coach dreams of.
Head coach Aaron Sanders returns ten upperclassmen, four of which are seniors.
“We have a great group of kids that were really young and inexperienced last year,” Sanders said. “I'm excited to see how much they've improved and grown this year.”
Skyview lost one All-Conference player in Justice Cook, who conducted the offense from point guard. Cook finished the season with a First Team All-Conference honor while teammates Jayson Hibbard was Second Team All-Conference and Cayden Wright was an Honorable Mention.
Cook is gone, but Hibbard and Wright are both juniors, Hibbard at forward and Wright at guard.
Skyview will have to play tougher at the end of the season to get to the state tournament, something they didn’t do last year.
The Hawks lost their final two games of the regular season and missed the state tournament. With four seniors, ending the year strong may not be an issue.
Trey Burgess returns to point guard while Isaiah Schlegel returns as a guard. Kyle Pierce and Jeff Freeman return to the frontcourt. The four will be expected to lead the team through the rollercoaster season that sees just as many ups as downs.
Joining Burgess and Schlegel in the backcourt are juniors Chris Kielman and Isaac Casebolt while fellow juniors Demonte Horton and MJ Salois will be added to the rotation in the blocks as forwards.
The host of upperclassmen are well balanced as Sanders hopes the offense can become more consistent and avoid those long scoring droughts they endured last season.
“Our strengths should be that we have a lot of balance with guys that can score both inside and on the perimeter,” Sanders said. “We need to be more consistent offensively.”
One player that could help the Hawks become more consistent on offense is sophomore forward Parker Jones, who will most likely see some playing time since he is an underclassman on a heavy-upperclassmen squad.
Another advantage of an experience team is the flexibility coaches have. Sanders only played one defensive system last season. That will not be the case this year.
We have a lot of length, hopefully we can use that to cause deflections, defend the dribble, contest shots and rebound,” Sanders said. “Last year we played mostly one defense all year, this year hopefully we will be able to change defenses to keep teams more off balance.”
With the new found combination of experience and talent, Skyview will be ready to go when they take on rival Bishop Kellye on Jan. 25. The game will be the only regular season meeting between the two.
“We have had some great games with BK and developed a pretty good rivalry with them over the last ten years,” Sanders said.
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