A senior laden squad greeted Coach David Butts as he opened pre-season practice for the THS varsity basketball team. It was just the opposite when he met the junior varsity squad, as all of them are ninth graders. One thing that both teams had in common was the lack of height. “I believe our varsity will be a good shooting team but we have no height to speak of with our tallest player only being 6’3”,” Coach Butts said. “We do have good team speed and a lot of experience.” With an experienced squad and planning to play a pressure man to man defense Coach Butts expects to play eight to nine players in his rotation on the varsity. “We hope to use our speed and quickness in our pressure defense to get turnovers to feed our running game,” Butts said. “In order to do that though we will have to be disciplined in our aggressive play.” Coach Butts knows that the Tigers have moved to one of the toughest areas in 4A basketball with Choctaw County, Demopolis, Greene County, and state runner up Livingston competing with the Tigers for the area crown. “I know all of those teams have great athletes and are well coached,” Butts said. “But I expect us to get right in there with them playing hard and expecting to win.”

The junior varsity is very inexperienced in contrast to the varsity and has spent most of their time learning the fundamentals and how to play team basketball instead of playing strictly for themselves. “I think this junior varsity team will get better as the season goes along,” Butts said. “We will have to be patient with them as they learn what is expected of them and how to play the game as it was intended.”

Butts plans for both teams to play the basic same offense and defense and subsequently needs to develop depth on both squads as the style of play will be demanding physically on those playing.

Both teams will be in action this Friday as Coffeeville comes to Thomasville for a tripleheader with the B-team scheduled for 5 p.m. start followed by the girls at 6 and the varsity boys at 7:30.

Coach Butts wants everyone to come out and support the Tigers as they begin this new era in Thomasville basketball.