R-C Sports Notebook: Boys' hoops squad turns heads during scrimmages

The R-C Sports Notebook is a weekly online-exclusive column that appears every Tuesday on www.recordcourier.com. It contains observations, rumors, scoops and briefs from the Douglas County sports world.

We've heard that the Douglas High boys' basketball team turned in impressive performances over the weekend at the preseason scrimmages in Reno.

While coaches are not allowed to keep score, or even individual statistics, Douglas more than held its own in six separate scrimmages, including an surprising performance against Galena.

Word is that junior power forward Jeff Nady put the clamps down defensively on highly-touted Galena junior Luke Babbitt, who has been actively recruited by the likes of Ohio State, UCLA, Arizona, Gonzaga and Nevada.

Standout center Keith Olson is said to have had an excellent weekend on the post and guard Mike Gransbery ran the offense efficiently.

The surprise of the weekend was sophomore shooting guard/small forward James McLaughlin. McLaughlin had made the most of limited minutes during offseason play and should figure heavily into the mix during the regular season.

- The girls' basketball team at Douglas had no preseason scrimmages, but the Lady Tigers will open their regular season this weekend with a game at Spanish Springs Saturday afternoon.

Douglas has three players taller than six feet and boasts a number of quick, athletic players on defense.

- Douglas High School has hired a softball coach for the 2007 season. Andy Mitchell, who has coached in the Carson Valley Hurricanes program for the last three seasons, will take over at the helm for the Lady Tigers.

Mitchell has made a three-year commitment to the team, hopefully meaning the Tigers will have some extended continuity.

A story on the hiring will be in Friday's R-C.

- Athletes of the week: Mike Gransbery, sr., Douglas boys' soccer and Morgan LeFever, sr., Douglas girls' soccer. Each player owned their respective league offensively this season and were rewarded as such in the All-Sierra League honors announced last week. The big surprise was that LeFever, who played the majority of the season at forward and broke state, region, league and school marks in season and career goals, was not named the offensive player of the year. That honor went instead to Carson sophomore Brandi Vega for the second consecutive season. Why the league coaches decided to name LeFever the league's midfielder of the year is beyond us, but even so that doesn't take away from the season LeFever had.