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Looking back at 2021-2022 Steers basketball

Tue, 06/14/2022 - 8:49 am
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    (MIKE WILLIAMS | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Keion Shead was one of several new faces to Steers basketball. After recovering from an injury, Shead was a player Coach Kris Hise turned to for scoring.
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With school out for the summer and the end of the high school sports year, The Graham Leader will take a look back at the year that was before taking a look at the year ahead. In this edition of The Graham Leader, we will look back at the 2021-2022 season for Steers basketball.

Head Coach Kris Hise knew he was entering a “rebuilding” situation when taking over the Steers in June last year. The Steers had just graduated four starters and several bench players from a talented senior class. It was a challenge Hise was ready for.

“My first year at Big Spring was kind of like what is going on here,” Hise said in his first interview with The Graham Leader. “We got to Big Spring and it was a really young group. We kind of took some lumps early. We almost got in the playoffs, just missed that chance. It turned around real quick. We kind of rode those younger guys in the first year and they learned to win and learned to play the game we want to play it.”

Hise arrived at Graham to begin his 14th year of coaching after stints at Hamlin, Wheeler and Big Spring. Ben Williams was the lone Steer remaining that had played significant minutes the year prior, Lawson Wenninger returned as well, but played sparingly in the previous season. Replacing seven graduating seniors was Ty Thompson, Tyson Weaver, Levi May, Kolby Spurlin, Creed Jordan, Riley Lanham and Welker Horn. Thompson and Wenninger were later additions to the roster after taking a short break following the football season. Keion Shead started late after recovering from an injury. Patience was the name of the game for Coach Hise.

“I just told them, I wasn’t gonna hold it against them, if they thought they wanted to take a little break, because they’ve been going since Aug. 1,” Hise said. “We are going to have a young core, we’re going to struggle in some areas because we’re young, but for the most part. It’s a bright future. We’re excited about that plus our guys play hard and get after it. So they do everything that you can’t coach. They do all that stuff that you’re supposed to do. So that’s a positive. It’s something to look forward to and the rest of it. I think the shooting and stuff like that can be cleaned up.”

For the full story, see the Wednesday, June 15 edition of The Graham Leader.