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Flying Tigers
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| Columbia High School’s Dexter Dye, 17, passes the ball to teammates during full court passing drills Tuesday afternoon. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Pressure is the plan for CHS basketball.
By TIM KIRBY
tkirby@lakecityreporter.com
Columbia High’s basketball team will be rich in depth, but the wealth of talent is yet to be determined.
The Tigers open up this week with a couple of preseason games. Columbia plays P.K. Yonge School at 5 p.m., Thursday, at Buchholz High. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Columbia plays Buchholz at Gainesville High.
Columbia plays in District 4-5A, which produced a final four team last year (Gainesville) and a state champion team in 2005-06 (Eastside High). The Tigers were district runner-up each of those seasons and have a league record of 28-8 in the previous three years.
Coach Trey Hosford said all the teams (Vanguard, Leesburg, Lake Weir, Forest high schools round out the district) will be chasing Gainesville this year.
The Hurricanes return first-team all-state player Greg Gantt, who recently signed with Florida Atlantic, as well as honorable mention Anthony Nwadigo, 6-7 Gabe Rutledge and T.J. Hall.
Gainesville has so much promise, it was able to lure legendary Bronson High coach Kelly Beckham away from the Eagles.
“I’ll be surprised if Gainesville is not preseason 1-2 in the state,” Hosford said.
Hosford gives Eastside a slight edge among the other schools. “It will be a toss-up from there,” he said.
“I still think we are the toughest district in 5A,” Hosford said. “The bottom has gotten much stronger. There was always a couple of games you thought you should win, but everybody in the district is pretty evenly matched and chasing Gainesville.
“If you win eight games, I think you will be the No. 3 seed and we have got to make sure we are in the top three. Four or five is not a good place to be.”
n
Columbia must do battle with one returning starter, Dont’ae Davis. Ian Benjamin, Julio Viens and Paul Hollie also return from last year.
The Tigers lost all-state player Kenny Williams and more.
“I feel like Kenny was the best who ever played here,” Hosford said. “Cameron (Reynolds) was on the varsity three years and Ryan Bell was the best defender I’ve coached. We lost five of our top six.”
Davis averaged 10.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last year. Benjamin averaged four points and two rebounds, while Viens averaged 3 and 3 and Hollie 1 and 1.
“I am expecting Dont’ae to be a leader,” Hosford said. “At times he will have to take over a game and score points. Ian is very much improved and I expect him to be in the starting rotation. He is a good shooter and his ball handling has improved a lot.
“Paul showed last year he can come in and hit key shots. Julio saw quite a bit of minutes and I expect him to compete for a starting spot in the post.”
n
Dexter Dye was MVP for the junior varsity last year and Ricky Jernigan is back after not playing last year. Both can handle the ball.
Dakota Smith and Dewayne Edwards are big guys up from the JV. Nate Williams and Jordan Kirby have JV experience. Billy Dortly is expected to be eligible in January.
Newcomers are names Columbia fans will recognize from football.
Jerry Thomas started six games for CHS as a freshman, then played at Lake City Christian Academy the last two years. Daron Huff played in Tallahassee last year. Tiger Powell is giving basketball a shot.
“Jerry is not afraid to get in there and bang around,” Hosford said. “Daron can play bigger than he is and is tough to guard.
“Tiger hasn’t played organized basketball in a couple of years, but he gives us a strength we’ve never had. He can defend guards and in the post and he showed in tryouts he can be a rebounding machine.”
n
Hosford is carrying 14 on the varsity and said all can play.
“We can go 11-12 deep and not lose anything,” Hosford said. “We are going to make it a full-court game — 32 minutes of nothing but pressure. We have to be smart about it, but when guys get in foul trouble we can go to the bench and I don’t expect us to lose anything.
“This is the way I’ve always wanted to play but we haven’t been that deep.”
John Brown and Steve Smithy are varsity assistants and Joey O’Neal will coach the JV. Columbia has a freshman team that Hosford, Smithy and Brown will rotate coaching.
There are 13 sophomores and 10 freshmen fighting for playing time on the two squads.
Columbia will host the district tournament in February.
“It took some negotiating and begging,” Hosford said. “We’ve traveled as much as anybody and this is something I asked for. The other coaches agreed we had earned that right.”
The Tigers open up this week with a couple of preseason games. Columbia plays P.K. Yonge School at 5 p.m., Thursday, at Buchholz High. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Columbia plays Buchholz at Gainesville High.
Columbia plays in District 4-5A, which produced a final four team last year (Gainesville) and a state champion team in 2005-06 (Eastside High). The Tigers were district runner-up each of those seasons and have a league record of 28-8 in the previous three years.
Coach Trey Hosford said all the teams (Vanguard, Leesburg, Lake Weir, Forest high schools round out the district) will be chasing Gainesville this year.
The Hurricanes return first-team all-state player Greg Gantt, who recently signed with Florida Atlantic, as well as honorable mention Anthony Nwadigo, 6-7 Gabe Rutledge and T.J. Hall.
Gainesville has so much promise, it was able to lure legendary Bronson High coach Kelly Beckham away from the Eagles.
“I’ll be surprised if Gainesville is not preseason 1-2 in the state,” Hosford said.
Hosford gives Eastside a slight edge among the other schools. “It will be a toss-up from there,” he said.
“I still think we are the toughest district in 5A,” Hosford said. “The bottom has gotten much stronger. There was always a couple of games you thought you should win, but everybody in the district is pretty evenly matched and chasing Gainesville.
“If you win eight games, I think you will be the No. 3 seed and we have got to make sure we are in the top three. Four or five is not a good place to be.”
n
Columbia must do battle with one returning starter, Dont’ae Davis. Ian Benjamin, Julio Viens and Paul Hollie also return from last year.
The Tigers lost all-state player Kenny Williams and more.
“I feel like Kenny was the best who ever played here,” Hosford said. “Cameron (Reynolds) was on the varsity three years and Ryan Bell was the best defender I’ve coached. We lost five of our top six.”
Davis averaged 10.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last year. Benjamin averaged four points and two rebounds, while Viens averaged 3 and 3 and Hollie 1 and 1.
“I am expecting Dont’ae to be a leader,” Hosford said. “At times he will have to take over a game and score points. Ian is very much improved and I expect him to be in the starting rotation. He is a good shooter and his ball handling has improved a lot.
“Paul showed last year he can come in and hit key shots. Julio saw quite a bit of minutes and I expect him to compete for a starting spot in the post.”
n
Dexter Dye was MVP for the junior varsity last year and Ricky Jernigan is back after not playing last year. Both can handle the ball.
Dakota Smith and Dewayne Edwards are big guys up from the JV. Nate Williams and Jordan Kirby have JV experience. Billy Dortly is expected to be eligible in January.
Newcomers are names Columbia fans will recognize from football.
Jerry Thomas started six games for CHS as a freshman, then played at Lake City Christian Academy the last two years. Daron Huff played in Tallahassee last year. Tiger Powell is giving basketball a shot.
“Jerry is not afraid to get in there and bang around,” Hosford said. “Daron can play bigger than he is and is tough to guard.
“Tiger hasn’t played organized basketball in a couple of years, but he gives us a strength we’ve never had. He can defend guards and in the post and he showed in tryouts he can be a rebounding machine.”
n
Hosford is carrying 14 on the varsity and said all can play.
“We can go 11-12 deep and not lose anything,” Hosford said. “We are going to make it a full-court game — 32 minutes of nothing but pressure. We have to be smart about it, but when guys get in foul trouble we can go to the bench and I don’t expect us to lose anything.
“This is the way I’ve always wanted to play but we haven’t been that deep.”
John Brown and Steve Smithy are varsity assistants and Joey O’Neal will coach the JV. Columbia has a freshman team that Hosford, Smithy and Brown will rotate coaching.
There are 13 sophomores and 10 freshmen fighting for playing time on the two squads.
Columbia will host the district tournament in February.
“It took some negotiating and begging,” Hosford said. “We’ve traveled as much as anybody and this is something I asked for. The other coaches agreed we had earned that right.”
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