By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
Despite posting another winning season (11-10), the Solomon boy’s basketball team is far from content, and will look to elevate their program once again in 2023-24.
Kyler Stein returns to the helm to lead the Gorillas in his third season as head coach.
In addition to returning several key starters, Solomon will also re-acquire the services of star guard Spencer Coup, who will anchor a starting lineup that should look like this come Friday.
G- Spencer Coup (Sr)
G- Spencer Krause (Sr)
G- Carlos Duran (Jr)
F- Hayden Zerbe (Sr)
That lineup will be completed by a litany of talented rotational players, including two seniors in Porter Hynes and Jake Sommer, two juniors in Logan Hammersmith and Jayceon Nelson, and a pair of freshmen in Cameron Herring and Calvin Mattison.
Ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, we had a chance to catch up with Coach Stein and get his thoughts on this year’s squad.
Q: When you had a chance to look back on it, what were your overall thoughts on last season?
A: Last year wasn't the year we had hoped for but looking back we got a lot of young guys experience and that will be huge for us this season. We played a lot of our games without our best overall player in Spencer Coup, and that made other guys have to handle the ball, score the ball, and do things they wouldn't typically do with him on the court. We add Spencer back now and get a group that is hungry to go win.
Q: Entering this year, what would you say are the biggest known strengths of your team?
A: Our guard play, athleticism, and depth would be the 3 strengths that stand out to me. We have 7 guards who can play at a high level, and we will rely on our depth this year to play at a fast pace and challenge teams for 4 quarters. We have 10-12 guys that can play at the varsity level, and 7 guys that could score 15 points on any given night. Our depth will be huge for us with the tempo and pace we want to play at to force other teams to play the same way.
Q: What are the biggest looming questions or challenges that you’ll look to sort out in these first few weeks?
A: I think it's going to be our discipline and attention to detail. We are a talented team and have the pieces to make another state tournament run, the question is if we are going to buy into all the small details that make a good team great.
Q: What are the biggest goals and expectations for this group heading into the new season?
A: One goal that we have yet to accomplish is to be Wheat State League champions, that is one thing that we have circled that we want to accomplish. We also want to get back to a state tournament. Our biggest goal is to improve daily, we want to be a far better team in late February than we are in December. If we buy into the little wins daily those bigger goals and destinations will happen.
The Gorillas open their season in Solomon with a home game against Burrton this Friday.