Galena will have a new look this season with no players returning who averaged more than 5.7 points per game for last season’s team that finished 7-18 overall.
Junior Chase Gallion was the player that scored 5.7 points per game last year. He is also the top returning rebounder at 5.4 rebounds per game.
“Chase will be changing position with added strength and muscle,” Galena coach David Sherer said. “(He is) very crafty inside (and) can hit mid-range jumpers.”
He was a spot starter and one of the first players off the bench last year.
Classmate Joseph Price is the only other returning player that saw a good amount of varsity time last season. He played in 20 games last year and averaged just over one point per game.
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This means the Bears will have to have a large group of newcomers looking to step up. Duane Erickson will be the lone senior on the roster. Behind him there is a group of juniors that includes Davon Stewart, Colby Dinger, Colby Hursman, Zavier Greene and Trenton Ellingsworth all looking to impact the varsity game. Sophomores Wyatt Snelson, Logan Thompson, Grant Harness and Presten Essary are returning underclassmen to the Galena program that could be factors.
Galena has three transfers that Sherer expects to impact that varsity. That includes juniors Skylar Nielsen (Reeds Spring) and Dawson Sherer (School of the Ozarks) along with sophomore McHale Hyde (Republic). Nielsen and Sherer both have experience at the varsity level.
This group will look to blend together in the early going with hopes of peaking for the district tournament.
“The core of this team will consist of juniors and sophomores. We are going to experience wide ranges of play,” Sherer said. “We must understand this is a process and we must take the good with the bad. We cannot become too high or too low.”
Galena opens the season on Nov. 20 at home against Lutie.
