Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Season Unusual For PHS Senior Boys

As Eight Players Remain To Carry Team Eight young men showed what true champions are made of even though they have no crowns or titles proclaiming them as such.

These eight young men make up the Curley Wolf basketball team.

To say it's been a hard year for the team would be an understatement.

The Wolves opened the year with a new coach in Hal Landrith from DeQueen.

They were also a young squad, filled with hope -- even if they weren't the most talented or athletic in the world.

Prescott began its basketball season against Lewisville on Nov. 7 with what was expected to be most of its team still playing football in the playoffs.

While the football team worked its way to a state title, the basketball squad was struggling; its young players trying to learn a new coach and system.

When the Wolves finally captured the state grid title, Landrith expected at least four players to cross over to the hardcourt who had the potential to start.

Though several players came out for basketball, almost every one of them wound up quitting the team.

The lone grid player to remain was Wolf quarterback Barrett Yates, who is also the team's only senior.

The rest of the team is juniors and sophomores who didn't see much quality playing time in the 1994-95 season.

"These eight have played hard," Landrith said. But it's difficult to contend when a team loses what the Wolves roundball squad lost what it did.

And it didn't make it any easier on those who remained when they were ridiculed game after game by their fellow students.

Home games were harder on the players than away games, Landrith said, because the team is supposed to have some support on its own court.

"Yates is the only player with experience," Landrith said. "I've got tremendous respect for that young man.

"He came off a championship football team into basketball. He missed no practices and has been there all the time, when his teammates from the previous year quit."

Landrith said Yates was appalled at the behavior of his former mates and their attitude.

Junior player Jason Webb has been a starter for the roundball team since day one. However, last year he only saw limited action.

"This has been a season of change and upheaval," Landrith said. "You couldn't have picked a worse time for a new coach to come in."

Landrith expected to get the bulk of his players in early November because of the Wolves 2-8 record on the gridiron in 1994. None showed up until nearly Christmas.

Admitting he made a mistake by not installing his full offensive and defensive schemes until after football season ended, Landrith said when they finally showed up they weren't ready to play.

This, he said, put the team even farther behind, especially when those other players quit.

Since that time, Landrith said, those who stayed have been the focal point of his attention.

"When we got our definite set," he said, "and decided who would start and our rotation, we had to get our chemistry.

"Those who stayed have worked hard, practiced, taken their lumps and come back the next day."

Landrith, in his ninth year of coaching, said he will not tolerate people who will not work.

Basketball, he said, is a game of skill and learning to play. By working hard and developing skills a player can overcome a more athletic foe, he continued.

Along with Yates and Webb, the Wolves core players are Shaun Vanhook, Carlos Haynie, J.R. Matthews, Tucker Baker, Scott Graham and Shane Pipken.

Landrith had an inkling of how the year would go when Jason Morrow was lost for the season in the second game after blowing out a knee.

"It took a lot of gumption for them (those who stayed) to show up," Landrith said. "They have been under a lot of pressure, peer pressure, due to their record.

"They play to the best of their abilities," he continued, "but they've got to try and make their abilities better, to outthink and outexecute the other team."

He said his young team needs to learn to control the ball and the tempo of games, working the pumpkin around the court until they get an open shot when the defenses break down eventually.

"I feel for these kids," he said. "They show character."

For the district tournament, which started Monday, Landrith brought up four members of his junior team.

His plans are to open the gym during the off season to let those who plan on returning next year, and others who may want to try out for the team, to get in some valuable work.

In addition, he hopes to take his junior and senior teams to summer basketball camp where they can play against and learn from other teams.

However, the 1995-96 Curley Wolf basketball team showed the true meaning of champions as they stuck together through adversity no high school team should have to go through.