Team Preview: Fairfield Lions
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
This season, the Fairfield Lions are all in with a starting lineup full of seniors, and coming off a district final run of a season ago, this is the year the Lions not only have high expectations from the outside, but even higher expectations of themselves.
For the Lions, they are coming off a season of a 13-12 overall record, where they went 7-6 in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and 2-1 in the postseason, finishing as Division IV SE District Runners-Up.
The Lions enter this year with a senior class of five players who are not only motivated for their final season, but to add to the success of last season.
Seniors this year include Joey Wilson, Gage Montgomery, Blake Hildebrant, Cody Bennett and Ryan Bates.
Bates returns with 271 points from last regular season (12.3 points per game), while Gage Montgomery scored 229 points for an average of 10.4 ppg.
"With this being Blake's third year varsity and Gage having two-and-a-half years at varsity, plus the other seniors contributing to the team last year as juniors, the five seniors have logged a lot of varsity experience," head coach Everett Snyder said.
"We lost our leading scorer (Quentin Williams), and though we'll miss him, I think we'll be a more balanced team this year."
The team also includes three juniors in Brant Huff, Matthew Leach and Dustin Willey, who complete the eight full-time varsity players Snyder will have this season. The rest of the bench for the Lions includes sophomores Ethan Putnam, Wyatt Harris and freshman Klay Walker.[[In-content Ad]]
FHS will rely heavily on their senior class.
"Blake is our floor general and leads us on both ends of the floor. He's our leader," Snyder said. "Cody is a good defensive player and a three-point shooter, and Joey is our big man inside. He usually guards the opponent's big man.
"Ryan has grown and was our second-leading scorer last year, so hopefully he'll pick up from where he left off. Gage is a slasher and some nights will put up a lot of points. He does a good job of getting the ball to the hoop."
Again, the expectations are high for the Lions, and that is something Coach Snyder knows. He and his team want the high expectations as motivation for where they want to ultimately be at the end of the season.
"I want to see us show constant improvement," Snyder said. "By the end of the season, if we do that, barring injuries, we should be in good shape come the tournament.
"This team here, I've coached them every year but one since the seventh grade … they don't want to accept defeat. When it comes down to crunch time, they seem to find a way to win."
Even though the expectations and excitement are high, Snyder said he wants his team to stay focused.
"They have high expectations, and I have high expectations for them, but it will still take hard work and teamwork to be able to be successful," he said.
As for the hard work, the practices for the Lions this season are the toughest practices they have had in recent memory.
"We've amped up practices where there is no downtime," Snyder said. "If one person is shooting free throws, the others are bouncing the basketball, working on their handling skills.
"When we run, we run with the basketball, dribbling full length, so there is no downtime in practices. We are taking the time we have to not only get in shape, but to improve our skills."
Again, it comes back to the district finals last season and using that as motivation.
"The first night of practice, we talked to the boys and told them to remember how it felt in the locker room down there (Athens) after losing the game," Snyder said. "We didn't want to settle for that this year, and our goal was to return to that game and further."
For the Lions, they are coming off a season of a 13-12 overall record, where they went 7-6 in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and 2-1 in the postseason, finishing as Division IV SE District Runners-Up.
The Lions enter this year with a senior class of five players who are not only motivated for their final season, but to add to the success of last season.
Seniors this year include Joey Wilson, Gage Montgomery, Blake Hildebrant, Cody Bennett and Ryan Bates.
Bates returns with 271 points from last regular season (12.3 points per game), while Gage Montgomery scored 229 points for an average of 10.4 ppg.
"With this being Blake's third year varsity and Gage having two-and-a-half years at varsity, plus the other seniors contributing to the team last year as juniors, the five seniors have logged a lot of varsity experience," head coach Everett Snyder said.
"We lost our leading scorer (Quentin Williams), and though we'll miss him, I think we'll be a more balanced team this year."
The team also includes three juniors in Brant Huff, Matthew Leach and Dustin Willey, who complete the eight full-time varsity players Snyder will have this season. The rest of the bench for the Lions includes sophomores Ethan Putnam, Wyatt Harris and freshman Klay Walker.[[In-content Ad]]
FHS will rely heavily on their senior class.
"Blake is our floor general and leads us on both ends of the floor. He's our leader," Snyder said. "Cody is a good defensive player and a three-point shooter, and Joey is our big man inside. He usually guards the opponent's big man.
"Ryan has grown and was our second-leading scorer last year, so hopefully he'll pick up from where he left off. Gage is a slasher and some nights will put up a lot of points. He does a good job of getting the ball to the hoop."
Again, the expectations are high for the Lions, and that is something Coach Snyder knows. He and his team want the high expectations as motivation for where they want to ultimately be at the end of the season.
"I want to see us show constant improvement," Snyder said. "By the end of the season, if we do that, barring injuries, we should be in good shape come the tournament.
"This team here, I've coached them every year but one since the seventh grade … they don't want to accept defeat. When it comes down to crunch time, they seem to find a way to win."
Even though the expectations and excitement are high, Snyder said he wants his team to stay focused.
"They have high expectations, and I have high expectations for them, but it will still take hard work and teamwork to be able to be successful," he said.
As for the hard work, the practices for the Lions this season are the toughest practices they have had in recent memory.
"We've amped up practices where there is no downtime," Snyder said. "If one person is shooting free throws, the others are bouncing the basketball, working on their handling skills.
"When we run, we run with the basketball, dribbling full length, so there is no downtime in practices. We are taking the time we have to not only get in shape, but to improve our skills."
Again, it comes back to the district finals last season and using that as motivation.
"The first night of practice, we talked to the boys and told them to remember how it felt in the locker room down there (Athens) after losing the game," Snyder said. "We didn't want to settle for that this year, and our goal was to return to that game and further."