By Chris Parker
Golden City boys basketball has had an incredible three-year run with 68 wins, three district titles and a third place finish at state in that span.
For the second consecutive year, Golden City will have to replace a 2,000-point scorer. This time is Lane Dunlap. Dunlap, who was named Ozark 7 Conference Player of the Year as a senior, averaged 25.4 points and 8 rebounds per game last year. He scored 2,068 points in his career.
“What we will miss most about having Lane on the court is his leadership and his hatred of losing,” Golden City head coach Michael Reeves said. “Lane was a kid that got the best out of his teammates and when he talked they listened. He was also a kid who hated losing more than he liked winning. This would hurt him at times because he would feel like he would have to do too much at times to turn the tides but you love to see this type of fight in your kids.”
Golden City also graduated Chain Parrill who averaged 13.5 points per game last year and scored 1,366 points in his career. Parrill combined with Dunlap and Arlo Stump from two years ago means that Golden City has graduated 6,168 career points over the past two seasons.
Defense will be what has to carry Golden City this year.
“Our key to maintaining consistency this season is the same that it has been the last couple of season. This season more so than the others, it has to be about defense. It is hard to replace the 6,168 points that have graduated the last couple of years, but I believe that we can match the defensive intensity that we’ve had the past two seasons,” Reeves said.
Josh Reeves will be asked to step up his game even more as a junior. Last year, Reeves scored 16.9 points per game on his way to first-team all-conference honors. He set a school record with 85 three-point makes shooting 43% from beyond the arc.
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“Josh will be our go-to-guy this season on the offensive end. Last year the focus was on stopping Lane for other teams and this season Josh will get the best defender from every team. Last season Josh was almost primarily an outside shooter and would have the occasional drive. This season he will look to add more drives to his game and finish around the basket as well as still be an outside threat,” Coach Reeves said. “Over our last eight games last season Josh averaged 21 PPG while shooting 51% from the field. We will look for him to keep these numbers up or possibly exceed them. He has put a ton of work in this offseason to be physically and mentally prepared for this season and we expect big numbers from him. We’re looking at him to be a defensive leader and one of the top rebounders for our team as well.”
The senior quartet of Elijah Pettengill, Max Parrill, Colby Nelson and Caleb Cifuentes also return after seeing varsity action last year.
Reeves on Pettengill: “Elijah is a player that can be switched between the forward and guard positions as well. He is not the tallest guy on our team but he is strong and knows how to position his body to rebound. He is one of the best offensive rebounders I’ve ever coached. He has a good offensive skill set. If he can learn on the fly when to make plays happen and when to slow it down then we look for Elijah to have a break out year.”
Reeves on Parrill: “Max is the brother of Chain and Arlo. Max has a ton of skill and is one of our quickest players. With his speed and athleticism he is our best on ball defender and is very disruptive on that end. On the offensive end, he is crafty at getting to the basket and has a nice set shot from three-point line.”
Reeves on Nelson: “Colby is one of our taller players and is the fastest player on our team. He has always been a really good athlete within our program but this summer he really started to come in his own and made really big improvements. He reads passing lanes really well and is big part of the different defenses we will run this upcoming season. We look for Colby to have a breakout year this year.”
Reeves on Cifuentes: “Caleb’s brother, Eliab, was our starting guard on our final four team two years ago and was a huge factor because of how hard he played and how well he was willing to do the dirty work that makes teams great. Caleb has that same ‘it’ factor that will make him hard to take off the floor this season. He is not the tallest player or the most skilled but he is our toughest player and one of the hardest workers I’ve seen.”
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Braden Stump (senior), Ty Force (junior), Cael McMillian (junior) and Jacob Begley (senior) will be newcomers to watch.
Reeves on Stump: “Braden was our manager on the bench to start last year. He would come to every practice and still play against our kids. One of our kids towards the end of the year had to have surgery and Braden then filled in and played our final 10 games on JV. He has come in this summer and built a role for himself as a tough kid who will do what his team needs him to do to win. In his 10 games he averaged 6.4 PPG on 62% shooting.
Reeves on Force: “Ty is a high energy kid that loves to compete and get under anyone’s skin that he is going up against. He has been working hard on his game over the last couple of seasons and it is starting to show. He makes a lot of good things happen for our team but he still has some mistakes from being young to the game. If he can limit those mistakes then we will look for Ty to have a great year. Ty averaged 7.6 PPG last season over 18 games on JV. He knocked down 18 3-pointers and averaged 1.6 SPG.”
Reeves on McMillian: “Cael is young to the game as well. He is improving each day that he is on the court and going to look to help us off the bench this season.”
Reeves on Begley: “Jacob has not played for the last couple of seasons but started coming to open gyms last spring once season was over. He is learning on the fly but has a chance to make an impact for us this season if he can piece it all together.”
Reeves will need his team to be more consistent this year to match the success of the past few seasons.
“What our team needs to improve upon to find success is our ball movement and finding consistency,” Reeves said. “If we can become consistent then our offense will look good in season but at times our team loses focus and it’s our offense that struggles. Part of this is from graduating four starters last year and everyone is trying to learn a new role.”
Golden City opens the regular season on Nov. 23 at home against Jasper.
“My expectations are the same as always and I believe the kids are as well. We want to have a successful regular season, but our main goal is on winning a district championship and trying to make a playoff run. There will be growing pains this year as everyone has to step into new roles this year but I believe our team has the make up to overcome some of those pains and be competing at a high level towards the end of the year,” Reeves said. “Our identity will be how hard our kids play and overall toughness. We’ve got 8-9 kids that will be competing for time this year and they all bring something different to the table. The one thing all of this group has though is they don’t back down and are up for any challenge.”
