Hunter: Time to hit hardwood

By DAVID HUNTER

The journey is complete as It is time to hit the hardwood for the CCHS basketball teams as the 2016-17 season began last week with two road games at Coffee County and Van Buren County. Their first game at Robert A. Harris Gymnasium is tonight against neighboring rival Warren County.

To say last season was terrible is an understatement. However, it is in the past and time to move on. We want to see the Lions and Lionettes back contending for district, region titles and a trip back to the MTSU Murphy Center for the TSSAA State Tournament like two seasons ago.

Both teams have been hard at work preparing for the start of the season hoping to bounce back after last year. The Lions and Lionettes have a mix of youth and experience coming into the fold this season. Even though, a positive from last season was a group of players on both teams who were young in class gained valuable playing experience, because of several factors on each team.

Now, these same players have returned a year older and wiser.

In the meantime, the Lionettes have a group of freshman, who could get a lot of playing time this season to go along with the only senior on the team Samantha Gaither and returning All-District player junior Maleah Scott. Also, a group of fellow sophomores and juniors have also blended nicely in with the already mentioned players. I cannot wait to see what happens this season.

As for the Lions, same thing with a mix of youth and experience as their counterparts. They will be led by a group of five seniors, who do not have a lot of basketball experience except for Anton Knox. However, they have a lot of experience competing together as a unit in the different sports like in football earlier this season.

At the same time, everybody on the team has worked hard on developing the necessary chemistry to compete for a district and region title this season.

The other big basketball news here in town is the tryouts for the newly formed Cannon County Middle Grade team, which takes place tomorrow, November 23. I am so excited to see who will represent this fine county as they will take on communities and programs like White County, Franklin County North, Coffee County, Avery Trace, Covenant and Forrest during the inaugural season.

I cannot wait to see these great players, who have gone against each other during the Cannon County Grammar School basketball season come together as one cohesive unit. Hopefully, no matter who gets picked for the Junior Lions and Lionettes, the supporters and parents will be respectful of the selection process.