Lake Hamilton graduated four of its five starters from last season, but from the performances that the team has shown in the summer, there will not be as much of a drop going into the upcoming season.
"We had a lot of good games, played a lot of good teams," said head coach Scotty Pennington. "I'm pleased with where our guys are. Everybody I've talked to that has watched us play said, 'Wow. Y'all are going to be a lot better than we thought you were.' That's kind of nice to hear right now. We're proud of our guys, and we'll just take some time off during the dead weeks and All-Star week and come back."
The Wolves competed Tuesday at Fountain Lake's team camp before hosting their own on Thursday and Friday. The team dropped one game at each camp, Pennington said.
"We went 5-1 with our one loss coming to Hot Springs in a game where they jumped on us, as you would probably think that they would having all their guys back and as athletic as they are and us trying to figure things out," he said of the Cobras team camp. "They got up on us about 13 early in the game, and we fought back and got it down to three, and I think we lost by five or six. We had wins over there over Fountain Lake and Centerpoint and Malvern. We played pretty well pretty much the whole camp. I was kind of pleased."
In Pearcy, Lake Hamilton lost to Maumelle, one of the 5A state quarterfinalists, but the Hornets had a couple transfers that will help them this season.
"Maumelle was a state tournament team, went to the second round, kind of like Hot Springs," Pennington said. "They lost one kid, but they got a transfer from Greenbrier, their 6 foot 8 post player that's coming back and transferring to Maumelle. The No. 1 guard in the sophomore class, Kyle Daugherty from North Little Rock, transferred there.
"They had a pretty stacked roster, and we had an eight-point lead in the second half and kind of let it get away and lost by seven. We played well."
Pennington said that the team is starting to realize its potential as well.
"We learned a lot of things about our kids as far as our guys are figuring out that, yes, we graduated a ton of seniors, a group that did so much for our program," he said. "We've got pretty much a lot of new faces, but they're also figuring out that we're going to be fine. We're winning some games we're supposed to win and winning some games that maybe we shouldn't win and staying in there and having a chance to beat some people like Hot Springs and Maumelle that, I think, are going to be top-5 teams in 5A next year. We've learned a lot over the last couple weeks. We're kind of pleased with where we're at right now."
Pennington said that he was pleased with the team camp that the Wolves hosted.
"It went really well," he said. "It was very competitive. We had Kirby; Centerpoint was there. Of course, they struggled with losing the kid that they lost. Texas High came and was very competitive, and we had a win over them. They have a kid who's been offered by Louisiana Tech on their team, about a 6 foot 7 kid that kind of plays outside more than he does inside. They were pretty good.
"I really thought our camp, as far as competitiveness, was the best camp I've been to with Texas High and Hot Springs and Maumelle and us and everybody. There were a lot of teams that were pretty good."
Following the mandated two dead weeks, the Wolves will have one more team camp they can participate in, due to the Arkansas Activities Association limiting summer activities to just eight days.
"I think we go to Lakeside for one day," Pennington said. "That's the only day we've got left because you can only have eight days in the summer. They usually have a pretty good camp. I'm sure we'll get a couple good games over there to finish off our summer. Then we'll have open gym the rest of the summer to get ready for next year."
Trojans have positive
week at team camps
The Hot Springs Trojans competed in two different team camps last week, spending two days at Fountain Lake before finishing the week at Lake Hamilton, winning all but two games between the two events.
Second-year head coach Antoni Lasker said that he was pleased with what he saw from the team.
"For what we're trying to do at this point in the year, which is just creating a lot of camaraderie, make sure the guys are working together and focus on things we're going to do this year, we got out of it what we wanted to get out of it," he said. "We've got some guys with some experience that we're looking forward to playing this year that didn't really play a lot last year. For what we wanted to get out of it, I think we got out of it. We learned some things about each other; we bonded, most importantly."
The Trojans played six games at Fountain Lake winning all six, including a win over Lake Hamilton. They dropped two of their four games in Pearcy.
"We've had our football guys that have been in and out because they go to team camps for football," Lasker explained. "When we're able to get those guys and have everyone, we've looked pretty good."
While the Trojans have only a handful of players who are also on the football team, they are some of the team's key players, including rising senior forward Santiair Thomas who is the Trojans' quarterback.
"Most of my guys that I have are there, but I've got four, maybe five, that are doing football, but those are some guys that are going to definitely help us this year that are doing football," Lasker said. "They're the majority of my post players."
While the Trojans are not where Lasker wants them for the 2019-2020 season, he is satisfied with where they are for this point in the summer.
"It's mid-June," he said. "We've got to keep growing, keep working, keep the guys in the gym during the off-season working on their game individually, and whenever we get together as a team, just continue to work on ourselves collectively as a group. I'm satisfied with where we are at this point."
Sports on 06/17/2019