After watching some high school basketball this month, I’ve formed a couple of early opinions about the area boys teams.
The first is that the Dayton High boys still can’t shoot free throws. Thus far, the Dust Devils are shooting just 50 percent. That’s unacceptable. I’m not sure what coach Jason Santos is doing to combat the issue, but maybe the players need to make 80 percent of their attempts BEFORE they are allowed to practice each day. I believe that most missed free throws are due to lack of focus more than anything else. I remember at De La Salle, the team was struggling at the line, and the coach made everybody shoot free throws underhanded in preseason games, a la Rick Barry, until they could shoot 80 percent in practice. By the time that year ended the team shot a respectable 73 percent from the line.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that Carson High’s boys team will be better this year than last year. While I hope this Carson team does well and it’s 6-2, I’m not convinced it will be better. So far, nobody is stepping up as a go-to person which is what every team needs. You have to have at least one guy that you want to have the ball in crunch time. So far I’m not seeing “that guy” on this year’s team. I do think this team plays hard and plays solid defense. From talking to coaches this week at the Rail City Classic, I think the league is down quite a bit from last year, especially on the Sierra side. If that’s the case, Carson could challenge for a division title, and nothing would make me happier.
•••
I applaud the recent merger between the NIAA and MaxPreps. It is long overdue.
As a media member, I’m often frustrated trying to find a simple thing as numerical rosters for schools for Northern Nevada schools. Coaches, at least this year, must post results of each game or face the possibility of not going to playoffs. I would have taken it a step farther. I would make coaches in all sports post stats, too. I realize it takes a while to do it, but in many cases, a student manager or assistant coach could enter the data. It doesn’t have to fall on the head coach.
I marvel at NevadaPreps.com, which is run through the Las Vegas Review-Journal. When it comes to state playoffs. I know 90 percent of the time I’ll find the information I need.
•••
Many of our college athletes are now back in Carson on Christmas break, and the first grad I ran into was Matt Nolan, the former CHS football and basketball star was on hand at Wooster to watch Carson’s win over Placer.
Nolan, who received a scholarship to William Penn in Iowa, ended up red-shirting in both football and basketball. He told me that he is leaving the Iowa school at the end of the current school year and will try to hook up with a junior college for two years and hopefully transfer to a Division II school after that.
•••
Two Carson graduates — Nate White and Clinton Vondrak — received their umpiring assignments for the upcoming professional baseball season.
White will return to the Double-A Texas League where he hopes to be a crew chief. Vondrak has moved from the Midwest League to the California League, which is considered by many to be the top A league in organized baseball. It will be nice for Vondrak’s family, who will only have to drive four or five hours to see him work. There are franchises in Stockton, Modesto and San Jose.
