Looking ahead toward the men's basketball season strengthening the point guard position, coach expects a fast-paced offense to keep them competitive

JOSHUA MANES Reporter @tweeporting

The 2016 - 2017 men’s basketball team comes into the season with new pieces and new goals.

The Brahmas return only two members of last year’s team, guard Javonte Matthews and forward Anthony Suber. According to head coach Charles White, four of the five sophomores from the 20152016 team moved on to four-year universities. White believes that this season’s team has at least four players with Division-1 talent.

Without a player over 6’7” the team lacks size so, according to White, it will need to play scrappy.

“When the opportunity presents itself we want to push the ball,” White said. “We do a better job at pushing because our guys are active, it’s just a matter of getting the ball in the hole. You can’t go out there and hope you can make shots, you have to go out there and make shots and get some stops. That’s the name of the game this year, getting stops. Our goal is to keep teams under 30 a half.”

True point guard play is a piece this season that they didn’t have last year. According to White, last season’s point guard, Montel Shirley, made all-conference but was a converted scorer. This season, starting point guard Kelton Conway, a bounce back from CSUN, offers the Brahmas a true playmaker handling the ball. White describes Conway as a dynamic player that can get up the floor and a good leader. According to White, the left-handed point guard is still learning to play the position as a leading role, but has the ability to make others better and move the ball.

The Brahmas face tough competition throughout their schedule. The season opens Nov. 15 against Glendale Community College, ranked No. 11 in Southern California, according to the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Association. For their second game, Pierce will visit East Los Angeles College, the No. 8 team in the state. Other out of conference games scheduled include Cerritos College and Citrus College, ranked No. 7 and No. 10 in Southern California respectively. According to White, Chaffey College, the No. 5 ranked team in the state, could also be added to the schedule.

Assistant coach Ron Allen Sr. says the goal of the season is to compete and communicate, and believes the Brahmas record will take care of itself.

“I expect us to be in shape and very, very competitive,” Allen Sr. said. “The team will have a sense of purpose and a hot passion for the sport with a lot of intensity. From a technical standpoint we want the team to understand the principle of being coached while they develop.”

White enters his first fullseason as head coach for the Brahmas after taking over midseason last year after six years as an assistant at Pierce.

“You always think that you want to be a college head coach, and then all of a sudden bam! Here it is man,” White said. “Last year was easy, so to speak, because everything was set up. I didn’t have to do the paperwork or anything like that. Now I understand what head coaches go through, and it’s still not over yet. We still have to get guys cleared, fundraising. There’s a whole lot more to it.”

Athletic Director Bob Lofrano is confident in White and looks forward to seeing the team on the court.

“I don’t know what he has on the floor, but I know him personally,” Lofrano said. “I think he does a fine job and is easy to get along with for the team. They play together. They’re very cohesive.”

White has a coaching staff that he can depend on to help him transition to the head coach’s office.

“I have guys that actually know what they’re doing,” White said. “It’s easy to just go in there and push a couple buttons here and there because they have everything setup for me.” jmanes.roundupnews@gmail.com leave the room and be able to run Safe Zone trainings on campus,” Gainsburg said. “That’s sort of one goal, the other is to create a Safe Zone team with the individuals that have been trained. They can look at the campus climate along LGBTQ inclusion and look at ways to move the campus forward.”

The season is set to tip off with Red VS Black Madness on Thursday, Nov. 3. The event will feature both a men’s and women’s split squad game and 3-point contest as well as a dunk contest.

The women’s game starts at 5 p.m. and the men’s at 6:30 p.m. in the South Gym.

Gainsburg and Collins introduced vocabulary to the participants to improve comprehension of the issues discussed on gender and sexuality. Gainsburg said they also mentioned strategies on how to be an effective ally, but the majority of the training highlighted issues the LGTBQ community encounters.

“We had a huge group that time, like overcapacity,” Collins said.

“My role in this whole thing is that, as a specialist, I manage a grant which is LA High Tech. Our goal is to prepare our students in the workforce by connecting them with people in the industry,” Mork said. “GIS happens to be one of the programs that I am working with along with media arts, computer science, computer applications, office technology and graphic design. Those are the programs LA High Tech works with.”

Mork said one of the reasons that LA High Tech is focusing on GIS is because they are recognizing it is as an up and coming trend in the work force. GIS technology can be generalized to any area and, according to Mork, it will be one of the most in high demand jobs coming out in the next 10 years.

“We are bringing out several individuals who are experts in the GIS field who work with our fire department and local city planning,” Mork said. “We have some GIS consultants who are sharing their experiences and their projects with the students to get them pumped up

“We were super well received and we were pleased to hear that we were asked back to create a larger team, larger network to make sure the program is really happening and maintaining that team that exists.” jherrera.roundupnews@gmail.com and spread the word.”

According to Mork, GIS is technology that helps create a more efficient and effective system general to provide tools to gather and analyze data so that it is understandable. It's a power tool that can be generalized in different arenas.

Pierce College student Austin Phillips is taking professor Finley’s meteorology and geography class and will be working at GIS Day presenting GIS maps and his project that demonstrates a view of how GIS operates around the globe.

“The importance of GIS is it just basically shows cases on what you want to tell people geographically wise on different locations,” Phillips said. “For example, an average population density, average income and to locate fire hazards and earthquakes or any activity that is going on.”