By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After finishing the 2019-2020 season with an overall record of 14-7, the Southeast of Saline Trojans boys basketball team enters 2020-2021 with high hopes for another great year.
Trojan head coach Bryson Flax returns for a third year as the head coach at SES.
When the Trojans are at full strength, their lineup will look very similar to what it was a season ago, with several key returners and all five leading scorers from last year in a lineup that will look something like this.
PG: Camden Spano-Lund (Sr, 5-8, 10.1 ppg in 19-20)
SG: Jaxson Gebhardt (Sr, 6-0 8.9 ppg in 19-20)
W: Eli Sawyers (So, 6-4, 10.6 ppg in 19-20)
F: Bryant Banks (Sr, 6-0 led team with 13.1 ppg in 19-20)
F: Eli Harris (Sr, 6-1, 6.9 ppg in 19-20)
The Trojans will also get some help off the bench from Nakari Morrical-Palmer, Luke Gebhardt, Drake Augustine, Grant Stumpf and Michael Murray.
We had a chance to speak with Coach Flax ahead of the season and ask him some questions about his team heading into the new year.
Q: What was your takeaway from the 2019-2020 season when all was said and done?
A: I was really happy with the way the team ended up. We made huge strides compared to my first year here and that’s really what you want when you’re building a program, to match new pieces with existing players. I thought we were lacking a little in our half court defense so that’s been a big focal point for us this season but all-in-all our strides were significant and I look for that to continue this year.
What would you say is this Trojan teams biggest strength this season?
In high school basketball you don’t really have a chance to get scrimmage games to see where you’re at but early on in practice I feel like our guys have bought into our defensive concepts which seems to be a strength. We’re also sharing the ball on offense on a level that I would consider to be a coach's dream.
And your biggest weakness?
Consistently scoring it when we get those opportunities has been a weakness for us, we have to get consistent with it and I think that’s something that will come with time.
What has been your focus in trying to build on the culture of this boys basketball program here at Southeast?
Before I was here Chance and Jeff did a great job with teaching and helping those kids understand basketball. It starts with what we do when these kids are young and it goes from there into our junior high program and eventually to our high school program. So that’s our focus, just trying to help these kids understand basketball.
What are your expectations for this team as we head into the new season?
It’s going to be a strange season, we’re gonna have guys stepping in to help all year that are unexpected and at times our lineups will be makeshift but I expect us to compete no matter who’s on the floor and give ourselves a chance to win heading into the final four minutes of a ballgame.
The Trojan boys basketball team will tip off at home against Hesston following the girls game which is scheduled for 6:00.
Stay tuned for a pregame article ahead of both the boys and girls games and tune in to KINA to hear both games or stream them right here on Salina Post.