SATURDAY-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27-28, 2021 PAGE 13
WWW.ELIZABETHTON.COM
Jeremy Maddox Head Coach
2021-2022 Happy Valley Warriors
Warriors will look for identity early in season
BY IVAN SANDERS STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
H
appy Valley head coach Jeremy Maddox said when looking on paper, there is a conception that the Warriors are returning an experienced. However, the Warrior coach concedes that is only on paper and not the real truth. The Warriors will have to quickly identify who they are as a team in the early season especially since they are moving into another conference where they actually match up better against the teams they will be battling for conference supremecy. “Landon Babb is obviously the only player that started for us last year and started some as a sophomore,” said Maddox. “Colby (Chausse) and James (Murray) are
really the only other two that played I guess what you call significant minutes last year. Troy (Williams) didn’t play last year but played his freshman and sophomore years and is back with us this year. “And this will be Blake’s (Garmon) first year as a varsity starter right now. Antonio Martin is another kid that played a little bit last year but right now he has a knee injury and we are just waiting to hear and hopefully he will be back sooner than later because he is a kid that can help us and shoots it pretty well.” Leadership will be key for success and when Maddox looked up and down his roster, he pointed out three Warriors that will be counted on to bring that to the floor. “We expect Landon, Colby, and James - we expect those three to be our leaders, Landon especially. For us to be successful,
we need really good minutes out of those three. They are really going to have to produce.” Happy Valley has always thrived off of pressure defense resulting in turnovers for easy buckets at their end of the court. That might be a challenge this season according to Maddox. “We feel like we need to play up-tempo but I am not sure that we are skilled enough,” he said. “We want to get as many possessions as we can. We don’t want to put ourselves in a bind. “We are kind of feeling it out right now. We do want to try to push and play. We want to create something defensively where we are not having to work and grind in the half court for 32 minutes. I am not sure that we can be successful doing that the entire year.”
Looking at the conference, Maddox sees South Greene heads and shoulders above the rest of the conference that includes the Warriors, Chuckey Doak, West Greene, and Johnson Co. “I think it is kind of a surprise for everybody,” Maddox said about the conference alignment. “We certainly feel like we are better suited to compete in this league than the other league just from a student enrollment. “We are sitting at probably 480 kids and you were trying to play Sullivan South, Sullivan East, and Unicoi Co. which was closer to a 1,000 students. That will wear on you from a number’s standpoint. “We feel like we are in much better shape to compete in our league than in year’s past and that is something that we are excited and optimistic about.”
