Shady Spring – Shady Spring’s basketball program has won championships through several transitions.
The 2021 title came with a group of super sophomores while the 2024 title came with a team that replaced four starters.
But the transition and challenge ahead of the Tigers is a new one. It why the month of June, filled with camps, shootouts and summer league games was so important.
For starters the group head coach Ronnie Olson will rely upon to keep the Tigers in the mix on a statewide level is comprised mostly of underclassmen. While Olson’s reloaded before, he’s done it by filling the vacancies with upperclassmen. But the new challenge has made the summer period a crucial one for the Tigers.
As it stands, Olson will start one senior in Brody Radford and will likely rely on sophomores Eli Sexton and Gabe Short to fill two other slots. The other two are up for grabs with freshmen and a sophomore in the mix.
“I think the last three or four summers we’ve been able to accomplish certain things whether it be roles or finding what works on offense or defense,” Olson said. “This summer it’s been about what can the freshmen do? What do they need to work on? This summer, we’ve benefitted most from playing all this games. I feel like come November we’ll be in a December type mode because I can attack and teach the things we’ve seen.
“We’re planning on maybe using flex days to start a week early just to get a jump on stuff. We’ve seen some things we want to attack. We’re disciplined on defense which is encouraging. It may not show in the wins and losses but as a coach we’ll know where we see the improvements.”
Though young, Olson’s already seeing the vision come together with his young team throughout the summer. Growth isn’t always linear but he believes the same level of success that his best teams have achieved is in store for this group as well, even as they’ve taken their lumps.
“Just because teams are young doesn’t mean it correlates to success,” Olson said. “People think being young means you’re going to be good eventually. We’re young and we’re good. I’m not comparing this team to Braden Chapman’s when they were 10th graders, winning a state championship, but they’re super richly talented. We have the freshmen and our two sophomores that I’d take against anybody in West Virginia. Then we have Brody Radford as our leader.”
As a coach it’s a different challenge for Olson. For starters he’ll be doing a lot more teaching with this group. But he’ll also be learning about his players on the go. All of the work throughout the summer has aided in that process.
“There’s been an emotional attachment because I’ve had my son and his friends that he group up with,” Olson said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had kids that I wasn’t close with off the floor. I’m close with my guys once they play for em but you’re talking about replacing a group that helped raise my son. When I look out there there’s an attachment, a different one because I care about them and fight for them..”
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