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Kendrick High School
School Info
Conference: 1AD2 Whitepine League
Classification: 1A D2
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Head Coach: Morgan LeBlanc
Years as Head Coach: 4th Season
Previous Experience: 10 seasons as assistant at Vallivue
Record Last Year: 8-12
State Titles: 1985
Assistant Coaches:
Tim Silflow
Returning Athletes:
Wyatt Hardin, F, 11; Blake Marker, G, 11; Logan Blair, G, 11.
Returning Players with Honors:
Wyatt Hardin, 1st-team all conference
“Key Players” lost from last year:
Caleb Olson, Barden Smith
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Team Preview:
Written by: David Bashore
The last couple of years for the Kendrick boys basketball team have featured plenty of growing pains. Most of the players on the 2015-16 team have played varsity ball since they were freshmen. Now that group is juniors and older, and that experience should start to pay dividends this winter for the Tigers.
Kendrick returns three key players, including first-team all-conference forward Wyatt Hardin, to go with guards Blake Marker and Logan Blair. That combination will anchor things for the Tigers, who hope to improve on their 8-12 record from the 2014-15 season. Offensively, Kendrick will look to center its half-court sets around Hardin, who should be a dominant figure in the paint in most of the Tigers’ contests this season.
Should they be allowed to run, they have no trouble going up-tempo, as it would feed into their pressure defense and yield transition baskets off of both makes and turnovers. Easy buckets would also help the team’s overall shooting percentage, though it could stand to improve from the perimeter and charity stripe as well.
Defensively it’ll be much of the same for Kendrick, which likes to trap in the full-court and force turnovers. More depth and greater conditioning will put the Tigers in position to create more turnovers than last season and push the opposition into taking bad shots.
Kendrick’s games against Summit Academy, the reigning district champion, will be pivotal in deciding the league’s representative to the state tournament. Playing at a higher level out of conference could be the key in getting the Tigers ready for the tough conference battles.
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