High expectations

Red Level seeks successful run in 2009-10 season

By Andrew Garner (Contact) | Andalusia Star-News

Published Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Red Level boys basketball coach Fred Kelley said that despite having such a “young” team this season, expectations are still high.

“We’ve got a good bunch that loves to work, but we’re going to be sort of young in a lot of areas,” Kelley said Tuesday.

Last season, the Tigers ended their season with 22 wins and eight losses, making it to the Class 2A South Regional tournament in Troy.

This season, Kelley is starting his 24th year as the head coach at Red Level.

“I’m still as excited about this season as I was when it was my first,” he said. “We just hope our fans support us and encourage us.”

Kelley explained that his team is very low on experience this year.

“We don’t have any returning starters,” he said. “They players we have coming back are from the B-team and also played some on the varsity team. They were role players (last year).”

Kelley said his starting line-up is up in the air right now due to a couple of factors — injuries and depth.

“Because of the injuries, we’re really sort of in a limbo as far as who is going to start,” he said. “We’re sort of balanced as far as the level of talent we have out there right now. We will still be playing a lot of players.

“It’s going to be hard for us to get the depth and rotation back,” he said. “It’s hard to tell at this point.”

Being a young team has its advantages and disadvantages.

One big disadvantage the Tigers will face this season is the lack of “bench play.”

“Desmond Jones decided not to play for us this year and he is the one that has filled in for Kyle Nolen when he went down for injuries,” Kelley said. “I tell you, we’re just a real young basketball team.”

Offensively, Kelley said the team would be running out of a “motion set.”

“We do a lot of different things, including pick-and-rolls, screening away from the ball and just trying to keep people moving continuously,” he said. “On defense, we try to run more or less a match-up man-to-man defense, and try to put pressure where ever the ball is on the floor. We try to make the game where we can get some easy buckets or transition buckets.”

At the start of the season, Red Level will be on the road until Dec. 14, when it will host W.S. Neal.

“For a young team that can be good and that could be bad,” Kelley said about the road games at the beginning of the year. “It could mature us or it could set us back. That’s a big key for us is the mindset — knowing that we’re on the road and we’ll be on the road for a month there. When we get back, hopefully we’ll take what we’ve learned and done and execute for our fans at home.”

Kelley said his team has goals to make it back to the regional tournament, both this season and beyond.

“We’ve been blessed in the last six out of eight years that we’ve been to the regional tournament,” Kelley said. “We want to naturally win the area and advance on to the sub-regionals and regionals. If we can continue to get to the regionals, sooner or later, we’re going to get to (the state finals in) Birmingham.”

Red Level’s first game is on Thurs., Nov. 19, at 4:30 p.m. at W.S. Neal in Brewton.