By Chris Parker
Liberal graduated a large group of seniors from last season’s 12-win team. Head coach Travis Walton will be looking for a new group of seniors to step up this season and fill in for the graduated production.
“We have a good group of seniors that play together really well,” Liberal head coach Travis Walton said. “Justin Payne, Quincy Bazal, and Luke Bott have all seen significant varsity minutes and will look to make bigger offensive impacts this year. They all have a great basketball skill set and we are expecting big things from them this year. They can all score in a variety of ways and make it hard on other teams with their tenacious defense.”
Bott led that group at 4.6 points per game last year. He was followed closely by Payne (3.6 ppg) and Bazal (3.4 ppg).
Mason Eyler saw limited varsity action last season and will have a greatly expanded role this year.
“He (Eyler) has a great motor and does a great job banging around in the post area,” Walton said.
Brodie Wilson is a senior that is coming back after missing his sophomore year and sitting out his junior year.
Kole Wiles, Dalton Davis and Cooper Trout are a junior trio that played primarily junior varsity last season.
“Kole is a big kid and an animal in the paint. He is very strong and scores inside well and is a great rebounder. Dalton is extremely athletic and uses his speed very well on defense. Cooper has been a big surprise to start the early year. He shot up to about 6’3” over the summer and has got a lot stronger and more athletic,” Walton said.
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Ben Dingman will look to make an immediate impact as a freshman.
“Ben Dingman is a freshman that we expect to help us out this year,” Walton said. “Ben had a great middle school career and was one of the best players in our conference last year as an eighth grader. He has a good skill set and is a gym rat so he will only get better. We look for him to jump right in immediately and be an impact player.”
While this year’s team may lack some experience playing on varsity, they do not lack for experience playing together.
“I think our biggest strength will be how well this group plays together,” Walton said. “We had a big group of seniors graduate last year so these guys have all played some JV the past few years and have been a lot of fun to watch when they are all on the floor at the same time. I’m excited to see them transfer that energy over on the varsity floor this year and really show people what they are capable of.”
Liberal will look to improve throughout the season as inexperienced players become varsity veterans.
“I just think varsity experience is what we need,” Walton said. “Luke, Justin, and Quincy have all seen quite a bit of minutes the past few years but bringing everyone else up to speed will be key; especially with putting a freshman on the floor. It’s been eight years or so since I’ve put a freshman on the floor for significant varsity minutes, so just getting those inexperienced guys up to speed of the varsity game will be key for us this year. Our seniors are awesome kids and great leaders though, so that will make my job easy as I know they will do a great job getting everyone to the level they need to be.”
