By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After coming within one point of advancing to the Final Four for the fourth time in the past 11 seasons, the Crane boys basketball team enters the 2020-21 campaign with a new head coach.
Denny Hunt joins the Pirates after three years at Springfield Catholic, the past two as head coach. He was an assistant coach for the Fightin’ Irish team that advanced to the 2019 state title game and is 387-279 in a career that’s taken him to many high schools and colleges.
“The one constant at every stop has been my love of the athletes and teaching them the game of basketball,” Hunt said. “I thoroughly believe that the experiences these athletes have in sports help shape them into young men. I believe basketball is a great platform for life training.”
Hunt replaces Kevin Smith, who is now coaching the boys basketball team at Forsyth.
“I am excited to join the Crane community,” Hunt said. “The tradition of basketball and support of the school district was an intriguing factor in my decision to be a Pirate.”
The new coach inherits a program that has won three consecutive Southwest Central League championships and routinely appears near the top of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association state rankings for Class 2 schools. As that association’s executive director, Hunt is extremely familiar with how the Crane boys program has dominated in recent seasons.
The Pirates have only lost 13 games since the start of the 2018-19 season, with all but three at the hands of larger, out-of-class schools. They haven’t dropped a regular-season Class 2 game since February 14, 2018, as their only in-class losses have been in district or state tournaments.
That includes last season’s heartbreaking 49-48 loss to Norwood in the state quarterfinals, which denied the then-top-ranked Pirates a chance to return to the Final Four for the first time since 2017. But with a trio of returning starters, Crane could be poised for another playoff run.
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“We are optimistic about the outlook of this year’s team due to the three returning starters and having the guys to fill the holes left by last year’s graduation,” Hunt said.
Those departures are significant.
All-state guard Isaiah Smith set the school’s career assist record and was voted the SWCL’s most valuable player, while all-district guard Brecken Vaught was the league’s defensive player of the year. Both of those starters graduated, as did sixth man Seth Steele.
The all helped the Pirates finish 19-6, with five above-class losses to Webb City, Republic, district champions East Newton and Greenwood and Class 5 state runner-up Bolivar.
But Crane returns a pair of all-district juniors in Aiden Vaught and Taylor Calzaretta, 6-foot-2 athletes who combined to average 21 points per game as sophomores. Calzaretta is the team’s top returning scorer (11 per game) while Vaught led the team with 7 rebounds a night.
The third returning starter is Aric Spyres, a 6-foot senior who averaged 7 points per game.
Sam Woodward, a 6-foot senior, and Nolan Brawley, a 5-foot-9 junior, are ready for increased roles after earning varsity letters last season. Juniors Christian Church and Ty Lower will both push for playing time after moving up to the varsity level, as will sophomore Carter Hayes.
“We had a good summer getting to know our guys as they got to know us,” Hunt said. “We put our system in and were very impressed with the work ethic of our players, as well as their desire to compete each and every day.”
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The Pirates will travel to Aurora for a Nov. 16 jamboree with the Houn’ Dawgs and Norwood, their only scheduled look at the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last winter.
Crane opens the regular season on Nov. 23 at Ash Grove and will then compete in the Pierce City Invitational. The home opener is scheduled for Dec. 14 against Reeds Spring.
The Pirates will return to the Blue & Gold Tournament in December and host the Crane Invitational Tournament in mid-January before opening league play on January 18 at Sparta.
“We are extremely excited about getting our year started in order to see where the hard work and dedication of our team will take us,” Hunt said.
