BallDontLie wrote: Sat Feb 22, 2025 6:33 pm
I’d agree on Eastern Brown and North Adams jv teams-very good! Eastern Brown jv went undefeated and I think NA jv only had 2 Loses (both to eastern brown.) Other teams in the league jv wise that had good seasons was Lynchburg-Clay (16-5 record) and Peebles, I think they only lose 6 games. Fayetteville’s jv group was pretty athletic too. Fairfield’s jv seemed to improve a lot from beginning of the year to the end. Whiteoak had a good jv season too with their coach pulling double duty between them and varsity girls gig. Looking forward to see how some of the key jv players in the league transition to varsity action in future years.
SHAC at a glance for 25-26
Eastern losses, Walkup, Edmiston, Koehler, Murphy, as well as a fan favorite in Campbell, but return a lot including a very good JV team who brings a lot of size, skill and physicality. Grady Barber returns and will again pose a matchup problem nightly in the league. Barber will probably be a double double guy and during the 2nd half of the season has demonstrated a much improved outside shooting touch. Vance, Pinkerton, Dotson and Florence also return for the Warriors as well as several others who got a lot of experience for Coach Buechler who has had this program running like a well oiled machines across multiple decades. Eastern will be Eastern.
Fairfield loses Logan Mcintosh, leading scorer, and Newman who was a solid role player, but return a ton of talent along with a potential CPOY candidate in Brody Smith, along with others back like Griffin Friend, the younger Mcintosh and Caleb Barrera. Williams will have most of the core back for another off-season and they will do what Fairfield does, and get more skilled and stronger and will once again hang their hat on defense. Side note, if you have not see the last few minutes of the Fairfield Manchester game, do yourself a favor and check that out, tremendous moment that represents everything high school sports are all about as senior Jaylen Daulton poured in a couple three balls getting ready hot from behind the arc.
Fayetteville loses Bradshaw, although outside pfloyd's coverage area, mentioning because will still be very formidable in the league and have Joe B with the reigns.
Peebles loses Reed, Shiveley and Browning all of which started at different parts of the year for Coach Arey. Peebles had a solid JV squad and a lot of young talent including McClary who as a freshman demonstrated ability to score at all 3 levels and use either hand to get to the bucket. Reed will be a loss they felt because the Indians struggled rebounding this season with their lack of size lead them in rebounding with the next closest Indian being McClary who pulled in around 3 a game. Peebles will improve as always with Arey, when they are hitting form the outside they pose a threat to beat just about anybody.
Lynchburg Clay loses a solid group of seniors, several good role players within the group, scoring wise Cody Bell put in about 9 a game. Asher Faust and Braeden West did some intangible things that are at times overlooked but not always easily replaced. They do return 3 of their top 4 scorers including CPOY candidate Denver Clinton who lead the Mustangs in both scoring and rebounding. As balldontlie mentioned above they do have a very good jv group. Elam Faust and Neihaus also showed scoring capability, Faust had 29 in the tournament game when Clinton was out with an illness while Neihaus averaged around 10 a game.
Manchester loses a really good senior class in Horner, Bayless, Roberts and Elam but do return a very talented scorer in Parker Hayslip along with athleticism and experience with the combo of Crabtree/Rickett. I am not sure what the greyhounds have coming up JV wise but I do recall some size. Kingsolver does a good job and will get the most of out of his players, I think many wrote them off this season and here they are one game away from returning to the convo.
North Adams it goes without say that the devils lose a lot, Schweickart, Rothwell, Young, Rogers, etc, but will reload with a very talented JV group, a ton of shooting, and a few pieces who gained plenty of varsity experience. North Adams for the most part always just seems to reload rather than rebuild. I know many thought they were going to take more of a step back this season with the loss of star player Copas and his dad the coach, but they are again poised to make another run for a District championship so the Green Devils are near the top of the SHAC mountain until proven otherwise. Osborne highlights the returners on paper.
Ripley has some pieces and a pretty good young coach with a solid background in player development, it will be interesting to see the strides they can make in year 2, I would expect them to improve throughout the season. Blake Fyffe had a handful of games right at or north of the 20 point mark, and Ian Young showed flashes at time along with Lacy.
West Union improved all year but now will have to find replacement for experienced lost in Jarvis(1000 point scorer), Grooms, and Davis. I think that senior class had something like 4 coaches in 4 years. The Dragons do return a solid point guard and scorer in Tegan Knox and a solid role player Flaugher. Hopefully the Dragons keep the coach around so he has a chance to establish a program.
Whiteoak will lose Roades who put in about 13 a game and shot it at a pretty good clip from beyond the arc along with a few other solid pieces including Tedford and Crowe. Brady Bradenberg returns and will be a handful once again on a nightly basis with the chance to bring in a double double average, the wildcats also will bring back volume shooter/scorer capable guard Sawyer Blair who can get hot quick. Whiteoak will play hard every night and improve every game as they usually do.
If something was overlooked, it's late. The SHAC has an excellent website fyi.
