The Pleasant Home Eagles varsity basketball team has already faced adversity after losing three players to knee surgery this season, but head coach Jerry Davis is still optimistic about his team’s success for the coming season.

“I was really looking forward to it,” Davis said. “I’ve got three that just had knee surgery, so I’ve got three I just lost for the year. I’ve lost our only side we had and two guards as well.

“This is the team that I’ve been waiting for since I got here,” he said. “It’s kind of just blown up as far as what we were expecting, but at the same time, we still have some kids that have played before.”

Davis added his team will be “little” in size, but said the team should be shooting the ball well this year.

“We’re going to be little,” he said. “Five-11 is the biggest we’re going to get and we drop off to five-eights and five-sevens that are going to have to play. It’s going to be a very difficult time for us to match up defensively, but at the same time, the other team is going to have the same problem with us offensively.

“We’re going to shoot the ball pretty well. I feel like on a given night that we can give anybody a problem. If we’re not hitting, we’re going to be in trouble, because we’re going to shoot a lot of threes.”

Upcoming games on the Eagles’ schedule include two local powerhouse opponents, Andalusia and Straughn.

“We’re going to play Andalusia and Straughn, which are going to be huge,” Davis said. “They’re going to be very difficult size-wise for us to do anything with. Then in our area, Kinston and McKenzie are very big. Kinston has four or five kids that are in the six-foot range.”

The Eagles will have Ethan King at point guard, Kody Taylor at guard, Stephen Davis, Josh Godwin, Josh Sutton and Cory Sims as starters as well as Tyler Barbaree, Coler Poole and Dominek Sims.

“We’re going to play a very up-tempo type of game,” Davis said. “We’re going to be very exciting to watch. On a given night, if we’re shooting the ball well, we’re going to be a pain in the butt for anybody. If we’re not hitting, we’re going to struggle.”

Even though the Eagles are in a tight situation after losing three players to surgery, Davis said he still feels pretty good right now about the season.

“There is not many I think would take the hit we’re taking and still feel like we’re pretty good,” he said. “We lost three good ones. We’re going to play some teams that are capable of overpowering us. Straughn and Andalusia, they’re a lot bigger schools. But in our league, most nights we’re going to be very competitive.”

Pleasant Home will host Zion Chapel today in the first game of the season. The B-team starts the night’s games at 4:30 p.m.