By Chris Parker
Osceola boys basketball has won 11 games in three consecutive seasons. The Indians will look to break that streak and win more than 11 games behind five returning starters.
Those five returning players include Preston Listerud (junior guard), Bill Snider (senior forward), Dyson Barker (sophomore point guard), Holden Reed (sophomore guard) and CJ Lee (sophomore forward).
Listerud averaged 9.3 points per game last season.
“This will be Preston’s third year starting for us,” Osecola head coach Seth Collins said. “We’ll be expecting him to step into more of a leadership role for us this season. He can get hot from anywhere on the floor and has one of the better mid-range games in the area.”
Snider played in 12 games last season and was second on the team in rebounding average at 4.5 per game.
“Bill is long and athletic,” Collins said. “We lost him most of the season last year due to injury and illness. He was just getting going as last season came to an end. Bill is a high energy player who has a knack for igniting scoring runs using his length and athleticism on defense and on the glass.”
Barker is the team’s leading returning scorer after he averaged 10.2 points per game.
“Dyson is a second-year starting point guard,” Collins said. “He is a smooth player that can get hot from outside. We look for him to take a little more control of our offense this season.”
Reed saw action in all 26 games as a freshman scoring four points per game.
“Holden is a second-year starter that really gets after it on the defensive end,” Collins said. “We’re looking for him to take more of a role on the offensive end, which he is more than capable of. He had several late season games as a freshman where he put his offensive talents on display.”
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Lee was the team’s leading rebounder as a freshman at 5.3 rebounds per game.
“CJ started for us last season as a freshman,” Collins said. “He used his length and athletic ability to patrol the lane and clean up the boards. We look forward to seeing him reach what he is capable of.”
Sophomore Devin Bloom will be a newcomer to the varsity equation.
“Devin is one of the more athletic kids that I have coached,” Collins said. “He started on JV last year as a freshman with limited varsity time. He has the ability to take over a game on both sides of the floor and expect him to be a force on the interior offensively. We look for him to really take a big step forward and compete for a position in the starting lineup.”
Osceola will be young but the Indians won’t lack varsity reps.
“We’ll still be a youthful team this season, but we do have several guys that have plenty of varsity experience,” Collins said. “I think we’ll see some growth out of our younger players and continue to take steps in the right direction with the experience that our guys have had.”
Osceola opens the regular season on Nov. 17 at Northeast Vernon County.
“As a young team I just want to see us keep progressing,” Collins said. “I’d love to win a couple games that people outside our program wouldn’t expect us to win. We want to compete for conference and districts as well.”
