Beech Tree News Network

Basketball season for the Butler County High School Bears and Lady Bears begins this week. The Lady Bears tip off their campaign on Monday in Morgantown against the Hancock County Lady Hornets. The Bears hit the road on Friday night to begin their season at Ohio County High School against the powerful Eagles.

Coach Christy Clark enters her fifth full season as BCHS Head Coach for the Lady Bears. Clark has been with the team for six year, having served as an assistant under former Head Coach Stan Murphy. Even though she has several seasons under her belt the coach has already had something happen this season that hadn’t happened in other years.

“We had all of our girls at practice since October 15th,” said Clark. The Coach is referring to the fact that several of her key players in past seasons have been BC Middle School students, and therefore couldn’t always be at practice with the High School team until after the close of middle school basketball season.

“It makes it tough when you can’t practice the entire team,” said Clark.

However things are looking better for Clark and the Lady Bears for the beginning of this season. Clark lost leading scorer Madeline Drake to graduation last season, but returns a core group of players with much varsity experience, including several starters. Key returning players from last year include guards Lynsie Clark and Shawna West, and post players Katie Graham, McKynzie Smith, and Chloe Flener. Allie Easley, Cheyenne White, and Addison Hall also saw significant minutes last season and return to the squad for the 2012-14 campaign.

“We have a lot of experience, and that will be one of our major strengths,” said Clark. “We have Lynsie (Clark), and Katie (Graham)who have been playing varsity ball since they were 8th graders. Then there’s Allie Easley, Cheyenne White, Chloe (Flener), and Addison (Hall). They’re freshmen this year and they have a lot of experience. When we go out on the floor we’re putting a lot of girls out there that have been through a lot.”

Clark says having all her players since the open of practice has allowed her to do some things that she hasn’t been able to do in the past. She said that in past seasons it was hard to put in a lot of specific plays because all of the players weren’t available all the time.

“We’ve been in a situation where we were still going over basic plays well into the season, this year we won’t have to do that, we can work on more advanced things,” said the coach.

Clark credits Middle School Head Coach Angie Easley for giving her a strong group of younger players, and she thinks upcoming players are going to be more prepared for the high school game in coming years.

“Angie (Easley) does a great job,” said Clark, “and we’re working on making our programs and style of play more similar so that things will only get better in the future.” Clark says that she and Coach Easley have been working on running the same plays, and using the same defenses and offenses. “You can’t have a good high school team without a strong middle school program, and we have that,” said Clark.

Clark thinks Edmonson County could be the Lady Bears’ top rival in capturing the 12th District title this season, and also thinks Grayson County could have strong team. In the 3rd Region Clark thinks Meade County and Owensboro Catholic  should be the teams to beat.

The coach minces no words about what her team’s goals are for the season. “We want to win the district and get back to the 3rd region.”

Clark’s team made it to the 3rd Region Tourney after the 2010-11 season, when seniors Smith, Graham, and Clark were all freshmen. That same year Katie Graham was named to the All 3rd Region Team.

Boys basketball Calvin Dockery enters his second season as BCHS head coach. In his first season Dockery led the Bears to a 20-win season, the 3rd Region All A Championship, and won 3rd Region Coach of the Year following the season. Even with all that success Dockery says this is a new season, with a new team.

“We graduated five seniors last year,” said Dockery, “and that’s a lot to replace.”

Gone are Elijah Flener, Alex Hall, Alex Hudnall, Jarrod Rose, and Brandon Thomas. Thomas, Flener, Hudnall, and Hall were all starters at some point during the 2012-13 season.

Moving into starting roles will be Zach Burden, and Rex Henderson, joining returning starters Zeke Woodcock and Trevor Jenkins. Even with the loss of five seniors Dockery will have another deep bench this season, but probably not as impactful as the bench last season.

In 2012-13 Dockery brought Burden, Henderson, and Caleb Deweese off the bench, and often the reserves provided the spark and scoring punch the Bears needed to win crucial games. The coach says that this year’s starters will have to carry more of the scoring load, with the role of the bench being more geared toward protecting leads and slowing down the opposing team.

Dockery’s team will start and end the season against a strong Ohio County High School team that is picked as one of the top three teams in the 3rd Region by several media outlets. Dockery likes playing the Eagles early, and then again to end the season, as a measuring stick for his team.

“After we play Ohio County we will know what we need to do and when we play them at the end of the season I hope it shows we’ve improved over the course of the regular season,” said Dockery.

Dockery has high goals once again for his team. “I think we’re the team to beat in the 12th district until someone can knock us off the mountain,” said Dockery. “We want to do more this year. This year we want to go to the Regional Tournament and win a game this time and advance. Dockery’s Bears lost in the first round of the Region in 2012-13 to Owensboro Catholic, a team that figures to be a contender again in 2013-14.

Dockery also wants to try to defend the team’s 3rd Region All A Championship. Making that quest a little easier is the fact that the All A Tourney for Region 3 will be played at BCHS this season.

Dockery says the team energy and intensity this season will be one area that other teams will struggle to match against the Bears. He says his players play exceedingly hard in practice, and he expects the competition for starting jobs to pick up as the season gets underway.

“In my mind I had an idea of who I thought the starters would be coming into practice, but that’s really up to the players. I’ve told all of them that the guys that practice the hardest and play the best in practice will be my starters,” said Dockery.

BCHS basketball games are broadcast live on AM-1570 WLBQ, and live-streamed on beechtreenews.com. Games will also be analyzed and discussed on the Butler County Sports Jam on Wednesday nights at 8 on AM-1570 WLBQ.

Season passes for basketball are now on sale at BCHS in the front office. Adult passes are $40, and student passes are $15 and are good for all BCHS varsity, jv, and freshman games.

Story by Joe K. Morris, photos by Jeremy Hack, Beech Tree News/WLBQ 1570