The high school basketball teams are to hit the court again after a long wait in off-season. The teams both have put in multiple hours almost every day improving their skills and team chemistry. The girls and boys both made the state tournament last year, but fell a little short of the championship. The Panthers are ready to get back to where they were and even go higher than they finished last year.

The Lady Panthers coached by Coach Carla Crowder and Coach Jeremy Halbook, finished last year with a 16-12 overall record and lost in the first round of the girls’ state basketball tournament. This year Coach Crowder wants the team as a whole to do bigger things this season.

“We hope to execute well and score in transition when we can. Also we want to defend and be great rebounders” Coach Crowder said.

After every year Coach Crowder plans to work on what she believes that the team as a whole needs to improve on. “We work hard everyday to improve on fundamentals” Crowder said.

With the new season upon us, Coach Crowder wants the team to go out there and play their type of game she knows they are capable of playing. “This group has been working very hard and we expect to excel this season. We are planning on a great year" Crowder said.

The Lady Panthers are led by captains seniors Kenzie Wagner and Lesley Roberts who plan to put this team on their back like great leaders and maintain the focus of one thing, a championship.

Expect some new faces on the varsity level of the game. After losing a great cast of seniors last year that means new people have to try and fill their spot. Juniors Blair Nichols, Brooklyn Stracener and Gabby Dodson are only a few players trying fill the roles of the last year seniors.

After just winning a state championship two years ago, the boys do not want to stop there. The winning cast of sophomores on that state championship team are now in their senior year and are ready to finish this season like before.

Last year the Panthers, led by Coach Jerry Bridges and Coach Nathan Brown, finished the season with an overall record of 20-7 and reached the second round of the state tournament, but losing to Springdale Har-Ber in a close matchup 53-43.

Coach Jerry Bridges is always ready to get to work after every season, because he knows that there is no time to stop with the conference they play in.

“We always spend a lot of time on Defense. I feel for us to be successful, we also need to be able to shoot well. I do believe one of the strengths of our team is our ability to shoot the three. We have spent a lot of our time in practice shooting” Coach Bridges said.

Defense and shooting are not just the only few categories that Bridges believes that the Panthers need to work on.

“I am concerned with our lack of height. Because of this rebounding is an area of concern. We must do a good job of blocking out and limiting our opponents to one shot each time down. I feel if we can hold our own on the boards, and keep our turnovers to a minimum we will be very competitive because of our ability to shoot” Bridges said.

The Panthers are led by seniors Noah Allgood, Jalen Brown, Ayden Shurley, Jared Vance, Landon Vaught, Carson Walker, and Christian Weir. These seniors have grown up with each other and have been gaining chemistry ever since they have been playing ball together.

The Panthers this year have a deep role part of their team with players such as juniors TJ Rodgers and Patrick Dickinson and a very talented young group of players such as sophomores Weston Vaught, Seth Vance, Austin Poole and Jacob Hudson.

If the two teams stay focus and their hard work never goes away, both teams will have very successful seasons.