By PAUL STURM
LCL Sports Editor
psturm@cherryroad.com
Coming off seasons which ranged from outstanding to much-improved to winless, basketball programs around and bordering Linn County commence new campaigns either tonight or early this coming week.
New head coaches occupy the end of the bench at every county (or nearby) high school except Mendon: Northwestern, where Lucas Hart (boys) and Blake Burns (girls) are back.
Brookfield’s girls now are led by long-time Salisbury girls’ assistant Wiley Potter, Marceline’s boys – after a winless 2023-24 – by Derrick Holt, Meadville’s girls by Shawn Kiel after Steve Carvajal’s departure to Tipton, Linn County R-1’s boys by Cooper Ballinger, and Macon County R-4/Bucklin’s girls by Andy Busick of the MCR4 faculty.
Brookfield, where Dray Starzl starts a third year in charge of the Bulldogs as the unretired (from coaching) Potter serves as a head coach for the first time, Meadville, and Northwestern will be the first county program’s to tip off 2024-25, the first two doing so at home tonight at 6 o’clock and the Mendon school’s squads visiting Orrick at the same hour.
BHS will welcome Westran as the ’Dogs seem to elevate above last winter’s 9-17 mark and the Lady Bulldogs chase improvement from an 8-18 campaign.
Meadville, its girls’ overwhelming ways of the past two seasons presumably now only a memory through graduation and the geographic shift of Carvajal and now-junior daughter Madison, will host Glasgow this evening.
Eagles coach Ryan Young has a couple of key performers – highly-experienced juniors Mason Dennis and Donivan Schreckhise – back from last year’s 15-12 outfit. Kiel will try to retool around junior Kinlee Fletcher under the specter of the past two Lady Eagles’ teams combining for one loss in 60 games.
Northwestern’s girls improved nicely through last winter for Burns, finishing 14-11 and having top players Jaden Mauzey and Sydney Robinson on hand again. NHS’ Eagles had a rare “off” year Hart’s first time around, going 9-17, and with multiple key performers from that squad graduated, getting to that number this year could be a challenge.
Come Monday (cue the late Jimmy Buffett), Marceline, Linn County R-1 and MCR4/Bucklin will join the parade to the locker room to slip on the game uniforms for the first time since February.
Marceline will welcome its northeastern neighbor with MCR4/Bucklin’s boys hoping to repeat last year’s 66-41 home success that started coach Tim Akins’ then-Bulldogs (now Raiders for the next two years, under their co-op arrangement with the New Cambria-Ethel school) toward their best season in quite a while (15-10) and initiated the Tigers’ tumble to an 0-22 final mark. In the 6 o’clock girls’ opener, Jared Best’s Lady Tigers, 10-13 last season, will look to again dominate their county-line-straddling foe, which ended up 3-18 after Marceline’s 47-6 cruise in the lidlifter.
That same evening, Linn County R-1 will host nearby foe Grundy County R-5/Newtown-Harris in a 6 p.m. twinbill. Last year was a tough one on the hardwoods for the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs, returning coach Maizey Knifong’s girls winding up 5-16 and the boys winning only once – in their second-to-last contest – in 22 attempts for then-coach Robert Williams.
Monday’s games will be the only pre-Thanksgiving tilts for Marceline, Linn County R-1, and Northwestern, who will move on into the Glasgow and Northwestern tournaments, respectively, the following week.
However, Macon will roll west on Highway 36 to Brookfield and Macon County R-4/Bucklin will head south down Highway 5 to Keytesville this coming Tuesday.
