By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Coming off of a mixed 7-14 campaign, the Salina South boy’s basketball team has undergone some major changes in the offseason, and will be eager to put a new-look squad on the floor in 2022-23.
The Cougars will once again be under the direction of head coach Jason Hooper, who enters his tenth year at the helm in Salina.
South graduated four seniors over the offseason and lost standout TeJon McDaniel to a North Carolina transfer, but returns a great deal of new talent to fill out a strong 8-man rotation.
Among those expected to play big minutes for the Cougars this year are a pair of seniors in Emory Barth and Jesse Vorarath, four juniors in Layson Sadjak, Quevon Purucker, Talen Slater, and Brady Howard, and a duo of sophomores in Owen Bailey and Jace Humphrey.
Ahead of the start of the new season, we had a chance to catch up with Coach Hooper to get his thoughts on this year’s Cougars.
Q: What were your overall thoughts on the 2021-22 campaign?
A: Last year was a roller coaster for us. We started really well in game one but then we didn’t play so well for a stretch after that. We found our strength around the midseason and had some really good wins in the SIT but then we went back into struggle mode and had a hard time getting the ball to go through the rim at times down the stretch. The kids played hard, they scrapped defensively and we gave ourselves a chance to win most nights.
Q: How excited is everyone to get back on the floor and back to playing real games after a long offseason?
A: I think everybody is very excited. We have a lot of kids who are going to get their first opportunity to play varsity basketball and that’s always an exciting time for them and for us as coaches to see what they can do under the bright lights. We’re looking forward to it.
Q: Coming into the year what would you say is the biggest strength of this team?
A: We have great chemistry and I think these guys are going to play well together. Hopefully, we’re able to shoot the ball well, we’re undersized compared to most of the teams that we play so offensively we need to shoot the ball well from the perimeter. Defensively we have to be scrappy and I think our kids are going to play really hard and play good team defense.
Q: What are the biggest question marks about this team as we head into the first few weeks?
A: Depth will be a big one. I feel like we have 5-6 really solid kids but we’ll need to develop some more depth and we still need to solidify our roles within our top six as we find out their true strengths and weaknesses on the floor.
Q: What are the goals and expectations of this team for this 2022-23 campaign?
A: The biggest thing for us is just staying together. Basketball season is always full of peaks and valleys and we hope we have more peaks than valleys but we want to make sure that we stay connected and stay as a group through adversity. Sometimes the wins and losses take care of themselves when you do the right thing and we need to understand that it’s going to be a growing process but hopefully we’re playing really well at the end.
Salina South will open their season in Salina as the Cougars host Goddard-Eisenhower on Friday, December 2nd.
For continuing coverage of Salina South hoops all season long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.