Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:27 PM CST
Martinsville ready for inaugural season in the LOVC
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
MARTINSVILLE -- Three returning lettermen are back for coach Kyle Shelton’s second year at Martinsville and the Bluestreaks are to compete in the Little Okaw Valley Conference for the first time after years in the Little Illini Conference.
“We have seen some teams in the summer from the LOVC,” said Shelton. “We have not seen about half of the teams though. We are very excited to be in the LOVC. It is always fun to see new gyms and new places and I look forward to it.”
Martinsville was 11-17 overall last year and played five LOVC teams, including Tri-County twice, going 4-2 in the six games, splitting with Tri-County and falling to Arthur. The Bluestreaks beat Atwood-Hammond, Villa Grove and Shiloh.
Returning for Martinsville is two of the three seniors in Keith Perisho and Ryan Slater along with junior Jared Higginbotham. Higginbotham, a second team all-LIC player, is the top returning scorer with an average of 14 points per game, while Slater averaged 9.5 points per game and Perisho 2.9 per contest. Higginbotham also averaged 6.9 rebounds and led the team in assists (3.2 per game) and steals (2.7).
Martinsville has a strange schedule in that they only have six home games.
“We have to learn how to win on the road,” said Shelton. “We will be battle tested with 22 games on the road (including two tournaments plus the conference tourney and the regional).”
Martinsville has had to practice some morning from 6-7:30 a.m. due to the flooding in July which caused mold in the old gym. As a result the junior high teams have practiced at the elementary school gym.
“I expect Perisho’s point production to go up,” said Shelton. “He played sparingly for us last year and he played very well over the summer. He is a leader.”
A total of 22 players are out this year, including 11 juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen. The varsity has nine juniors and two sophomores.
One advantage this year is the fact that Shelton was able to get his team in 50 games over the summer instead of 15 last summer as he was hired in May of 2007.
“We played in at Greenville, Chrisman, Shelbyville and Vincennes University,” said Shelton, a graduate of Lawrenceville. “In the summer I work on the offense and get to know what the players can do. It is also when I hope the players get the team chemistry. You know Jared Higginbotham had Chase Lee (now playing at Greenville College), Bobby Short, Harry Downey, Ethan Nash and Cody Finney, who all graduated and now he is doing a lot of leading on this team.”
Shelton expects his guards and interior play to be the strong.
“Jared can play both post and guard,” said Shelton, who previously coached at Durand. “We have a first-year senior in Hunter Gower, who is six-foot-three and Josh Cribelar is a 6-4 junior. Slater is six-foot, but he is a big body and Higginbotham is 6-2 and can play big inside.”
Martinsville lost five players from last year, including Lee, who was a Journal Gazette/Times-Courier All-Area player who averaged 14.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.9 assists per contest.
“I think confidence is the strength of the team, said Shelton. “Because our kids know we can win. They are level headed.”
Last year the Bluestreaks scored 55.8 points per game and allowed 62.3.
“Last year we started 7-2 and then our defensive intensity faltered,” said Shelton. “We gave up a lot of points. We have got to improve our defense. We will mix it up (defense), but mainly I am a man-to-man coach. Last year a lot of teams played zone against us so we have been working a lot on our zone offense.”
Expect Martinsville to be a little deeper team also.
“We have a lot of kids who played junior varsity last year and are juniors this year,” said Shelton. “We can go to 10 players and not drop off and that really helps. It also helps for practices. They are intense and competitive practices. When we scrimmage it is as realistic as it might be in a game.”
As for goals Shelton said, “We want to be in the top echelon of the LOVC. We want to win our non-conference games also and be competitive night in and night out. We want to go further in the regionals. In the last three years my teams have faced the regional host. Last year we lost in the first round to a very good Dieterich team. I think we have the talent it just a mater of the talent playing.”
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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