Unaka Rangers

2021-2022 Unaka Rangers Rangers have potential to be league contender

BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

The Unaka Rangers realize that the Watauga Valley Conference is going to be filled with good teams this season but they also don’t want those teams to forget that the Rangers are hungry and have an experienced team that wants to make a lot of noise in the 2021-2022 season.

Coach Aaron Dugger is anxious to see how his team will respond and how much they have grown up since last year’s campaign as his team has seen a lot of action together.

“I think that we have a chance to be competitive in the league,” said Dugger. “It’s always a tough league but a lot of these guys have played since they were freshman and we are all getting older and that’s a good thing. We are looking forward to some of our veterans coming back.

“We have some size we can go with in our post. In the past, we haven’t played as many kids because we didn’t feel that we were able to but we are looking at playing eight or nine kids and that is going to be important for us. Even though we have a socalled set starting five, some of those bench players may play more than those starting five depending on how it goes.”

Dugger was asked to talk about a couple of his players and his expectations for them this season.

“Ryan (Sexton) had a great summer for us. He will play a lot of minutes whether starting or coming off the bench. He will do what I ask him to do but there will be nights he starts and nights he comes off the bench but he is going to play every night and play a lot of minutes,” Dugger said.

“Joseph (Slagle) can definitely shoot the basketball. I think he averaged around 15 points last year and led Northeast Tennessee in three’s made last year but his big thing is he has to be more than just a shooter. He has to take the ball to the basket and put the ball on the floor and he is capable of that. He just really hasn’t had to because of guards who could get the ball to him. This year, I look for him to be more aggressive and not just a spot-up shooter but a kid that can go to the basket.”

The Ranger skipper feels this team has an upside of potential and could very well be the best team offensively that he has had as a head coach at the school.

That comes in part to being able to finally have a couple of true post players, an asset Dugger hasn’t had in the past.

Dugger said that he sees Hampton as the top-seed in the conference and the rest of the teams could fill in spots from second on down.

“I think our league might have more parity in it from second place down. We have a lot of stuff as a program to play for and that’s the way you have to look at it.”

Aaron Dugger Head Coach

2021-2022 Unaka Rangers Schedule

November 30 Happy Valley December 3 at Johnson Co. 4 Jellico 10 Hampton* 13 at South Greene 16 at West Greene 20 Chuckey Doak 28-29 Harriman Christmas Tournament

January 4 at Happy Valley 7 at U-H* 11 Cloudland* 14 at Chuckey Doak 17 West Greene 20 at North Greene* 25 Johnson Co. 28 at Hampton* February

1 U-H* 4 at Cloudland* 8 South Greene 11 North Greene 12 at Jellico *Denotes conference games

PAGE 18 SATURDAY-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27-28, 2021

2021-2022 Unaka Rangers

# Name Class 2 Joseph Slagle Sr. 4 Mason Wilson Fr. 5 Brynin Repass Fr. 12 Gavin Seigfried Sr. 15 Devin Ramsey Sr. 20 Ryan Sexton Jr. 22 Kaiden Benway So. 25 Brady Taylor Jr. 35 Joe-Z Blamo Sr. 42 Landon Ramsey Jr. 45 Marcus Shomaker So. 55 Brayden Powell So. Head Coach: Aaron Dugger Assistant Coach: Aaron Cross, Noah Rosenbalm

Manager: Korbin Hale, Caleb Hamm, Casey Wiggins, Matthew Wilson

The 2021-2022 Unaka Ranger basketball cheerleaders are as follows: (Front L-R) Kylee McCall and Madison Maryland. (Middle L-R) Emma Davis, Jordan Pippin, and Celeste Wilson. (Back L-R) Rachel Lloyd, Annie Townsend, and Makayla Bunten.