Raiders look to big b-ball season

by Leo Platero

There is a buzz and a little bit of excitement down south by the San Juan River as the Whitehorse Boys basketball team is rearing to go out of the gate. They are foaming at the mouth for the upcoming basketball season.

Second year coach Chad Shumway says modestly, “We will have a decent team this year, we been having some good practices and are excited to go into preseason play.”

The Raiders have scheduled some tough competition for the upcoming basketball season. The Raiders will take on the Aztec Tigers at home on Tuesday, November 27 in an early season measuring-stick game. The game with the Tigers, an always-tough 4A team from New Mexico, begins at 7 p.m. in Montezuma Creek.

Whitehorse will rely on veteran players Trevor Martin and Byron Grant. Martin was one of the leading scorer in the Region 19 last year and Grant was not far behind.

Transfer player Lance Vigil is also an excellent post player who will see a lot of action this year.

Coach Shumway has not decided on the starting lineup but most likely he will have freshman Shawn Dickson play guard along with Byron Grant, Jonathan John and Trevor Martin will start at forward and Lance Vigil will be the center. Other members of the team include Byron Silas, Virian Silas, Kenny Whitehair, Josh John, Kaleo Holly, Josiah Begay and Mosean Primeaux.

Helping Coach Shumway are veteran Coach Matt Baldwin and Rick Grant. Baldwin is the Junior Varsity coach.

“We will have a good bench,” says Coach Baldwin. “After Aztec we head to the Kirtland Tournament beginning on Thursday November 29 to December 1. In the Kirtland tournament will be some heavyweight opponents from Colorado and New Mexico.

Whitehorse finished fourth at the Utah State 1A tournament last year and will look forward to playoffs in February. They hope to do a lot better this year, but Whitehorse coaches will check the dipstick and hopefully make the right adjustments as the basketball season begins to unfold.

This might be heard at the Whitehorse corral, “Hold on and don’t open the gate just yet,” and “Where is my measuring stick?”