Unaka Rangers

Page 16 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2020 Rangers

2020-2021 Unaka Rangers

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders

Rangers banking on youthful experience to pay off

BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

Unaka Ranger head coach Aaron Dugger is counting on the floor time his young team received last season to pay off huge dividends coming into the new season especially with all the migrating circumstances surrounding all teams throughout the state.

It is especially helpful when you have a returning senior that knocked the lights out of the net as a junior.

“We have a good group coming back from last year that was young,” Dugger said. “We have Will Sexton coming back who was third in Northeast Tennessee in scoring last year. “We lost a lot but a lot of our kids that are coming back played some type of roll for us last year.

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“We are not just throwing a kid out there that just has junior varsity experience.” Dugger, entering his 11th year as a head basketball coach, has learned a lot since his early days and is trying to pass that on to his assistants. “Every day, I have the pleasure of having two former players that are helping me now and I tell them that if I knew now what I knew then we could have possibly moved some things around,” Dugger commented. “I tell them to pick up the things that they like and throw out the things they don’t. I enjoy doing it.”

Dugger is excited for the new season at hand and has a lot of reasons to be as he has a full stable of guards returning for action. “We are looking forward to it. I have some good guards. Joseph Slagle and Devon Ramsey are juniors that we are looking for big things out of both players. “Joe-z Blamo is going to be a sophomore for us and he is athletic – another big, strong guard.” Another strength according to Dugger is the play in the post position and is counting on a couple of players to establish themselves early. “Post wise Michael Heath played a little bit for us last year before hurting his knee and we are going to look for more out of him,” the coach said. “Landon Ramsey is going to be very important for us moving forward as well.” Dugger said that he is a little prejudiced but believes the Rangers is one of the toughest in all three classifications. “I have said it since I have been here but I think it’s the best league there is,” Dugger said. “There is no night off in this league. You have to play to a certain standard every night and a certain effort if you just want to have a chance to win.” The key for the Rangers to be successful is obvious to Dugger. “We lost seven or eight games by four or less points last year. We played even in most categories except free throws,” he said. “We are going to try to get back at playing eight to nine kids and if we can play unselfishly, we have a chance at being a pretty good team this season.”

2020-2021 Unaka Rangers

# name 2 Joseph slagle 4 Jaelyn hardin

5 Joe-z Blamo

11 Will sexton

15

Devin ramsey 12 Gavin seigfried 20 ryan sexton 25 Brady taylor 40 Daniel shearl 42 landon ramsey 44 ridge lewis 50 Michael heath 55 Brayden Powell head Coach: aaron Dugger asst Coach: spencer nave, travis sommers, & aaron Cross Managers: Korbin hale, Caleb hamm, Casey Wiggins, & Matthew Wilson

2020-2021 unaKa ranGer sCheDule

December

1 at happy valley 7 at Providence 8 tri-Cities 11 at hampton* 14 Johnson Co. 18 rockwood 22 at rockwood 28-29 harriman Christman Classic at harriman

January

8 university high* 12 at Cloudland* 15 sullivan north* 18 at Johnson Co. 19 at tri-Cities 22 north Greene* 26 Providence 29 hampton*

February

2 at university high* 5 Cloudland* 9 at sullivan north* 11 happy valley 12 at north Greene*

*Conference Games

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders

The 2020-2021 Ranger basketball cheerleaders are front (L-R) Rachael Lloyd, Kanyon Tisdale, and Jordan Pippin. Back (L-R) Annie Townsend, Chelsea Slagle, and Katie Shoun.