Kyle Williamson Bloomfield

Bell City will be without the services of 6'10", 300 pound, all-state center Will Bogan, who has taken his immense size and talents to Southeast Missouri State University where he will try to lead the Redhawks to Ohio Valley Conference titles. But even without Bogan patrolling the paint, Bell City still has loads of talent and should be the preseason favorite to make it three-straight SCAA regular season and tournament titles.

Back to lead the Cubs is Nick Niemczyk, a senior with three years of varsity experience. Phillip Gross and Austin Segers are also returning starters, and the Cubs have a host of role players to make Bell City a force to be reckoned with once again.

Richland's Drew Thronton attacks the basket.

Bell City's undefeated record in conference play led the SCAA last season while Puxico and Advance both finished at 5-2. Bernie and Dexter were next with 4-3 records, followed by Richland at 3-4, Bloomfield at 2-5 and Woodland at 0-7.

While Bell City may be considered the favorite, the conference should be more competitive from top to bottom. The parity of the eight conference schools should make for a very competitive and exciting season.

Puxico Indians

(24-6, 5-2)

Puxico finished second in the SCAA last season and won its first district title in 17 years when the Indians defeated Advance in the championship game. The Indians bowed out of the state tournament after taking eventual state champion Wellston-Eskeridge to overtime in sectional play.

The Indians lost point man Dylan Adams and post player Cody Clark to graduation, and they will also be without coach Chad Allen. Allen took a teaching position at Dexter High School, and has since been selected to lead the Lady Bearcats basketball team when long-time coach and athletic director Gavin Miller left.

Dexter native Josh Dowdy, an assistant under Allen last season, will get his first experience as a head coach in the competitive SCAA this season.

Dowdy has a good nucleus of players returning, including J Hon, the team's leading 3-point shooter, versatile Matt Allison, and David Crain, a center who "plays with a lot of energy," according to Dowdy.

"I believe that we will put a competitive team on the floor night in and night out," Dowdy said. "Our greatest strength will be our ability to score at all five positions. Additionally, our depth is greatly improved from last year with the addition of a couple seniors and two guys who moved up from the JV squad.

"We are still looking for a few guys to step up and take on more of a leadership role, which I believe will be important to our success," he continued. "As a first year head coach, I could not ask for a more talented group to work with."

Other players to look for this season are senior Kerry McClure, who saw significant playing time last year, sophomore John Smith and first-year senior players Jordan Holloway and Don Donner. Travis Stuart and Eric Guilliams also move up to the varsity after playing jayvee ball last season.

Advance Hornets

(20-9, 5-2)

Coach Joe Shoemaker may have been hit the hardest by graduation with the loss of Alex Steil, Trenton Moses, Rusty Hendricks and Adam Baker.

Only Jacob Bond returns as a starter, which will put much of the load on Chris Welch and David Van Gennip, who both move up after playing jayvee bal last year.

"We lost a lot to graduation so some of our guys will have to step up as leaders," Shoemaker said. "We aren't real big so we will have to focus on rebounding as a team.

"So far this team has been really hungry and willing to work hard in practice," he added. "If they continue this all year we will be all right by the end of the season."

Bernie Mules

(15-11, 4-3)

Coach Brad Botsch's Bernie Mules will be young, but talented this season.

Bernie lost six players to graduation, including Marcus Massey (18.2 ppg, 9.1 rpg) who is playing at Williams Baptist in Arkansas and 3-point shooter Doug Johnson.

Back to lead the youth-laden Mules will be senior Silas Dill (13.4 ppg, 4 rpg) and junior Zach Curry (11.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg).

Bernie's jayvee squad finished 18-3 last season and it will be those players expected to step up at the varsity level this season. Botsch said look for junior Daniel Becking and sophomores Ethan Allen, Jake Smith, Jake Welch, Jake Owens and Quinton Stevens to make an impact on the Mules success this season.

" I think we have a lot of balance with this years team," Botsch stated. " We have been

Promoting very strongly the whole "TEAM" concept, and I think the kids have really bought into that so far.

"We realistically could have someone different lead us in scoring every night as well as the other statistical categories," Botsch continued. "I think we're going to be able to go anywhere from 7-10 deep every night too, and that is definitely going to be a strength when you play full court basketball.

"We obviously, are going to be very young with only (Silas) Dill and (Zach) Curry having seen extensive varsity experience, but that is not going to be an excuse for us," he added. "We know we're going to make some mistakes because of our youth, but we feel like we can be a good basketball team now. We've really got to get tougher mentally, and also defensively and rebounding wise.

"It is going to be a work in progress all season, but we're just going to try and emphasize the positives, work on the negatives, and get better every night," he added. "These kids have a lot of confidence in what they can do, and we really like this group. They're very good kids. But, our overall goal is to find a way to win every night."

Dexter

12-15, 4-3

The Bearcats will have their third coach in three year as Rob Nichols moves from assistant to head coach. Dexter has finished below .500 the last two seasons, and as the largest school (Class 3) in the conference will be looking to return to its winning ways of previous years when it dominated.

The Bearcats have won six of the past nine SCAA tournament titles, giving way to Bell City the past two years and in 2005.

The 'Cats will be loaded with seniors this season and will have six players returning with varsity experience after trying a variety of different lineups during a turbulent campaign last year.

Look for seniors Eric Windham, Kevin Hart, Bobby Rawson, Logan Carwile, David Hessling and Tyler Scott, along with juniors Drew Kelley and Jared Stephens, to jockey for starting roles as the Bearcats look for a winning combination.

Richland

11-13, 1-6

Coach Casey Knight's Richland Rebels take to the hardwood this season with a renewed vigor that has been missing for many years.

With three returning starters and several players moving up from last season's SCAA junior varsity tournament championship squad, there is good reason to be optimistic.

Richland lost Cameron Whittaker and his 21.2 ppg average to graduation, but the Rebels have returning starters Nick Harris, Drew Thornton and Landon Miller back.

"Nick (Harris) is a senior guard and last year averaged 8 ppg and was key defensive player," Knight said. "He has really stepped up his game and his shot has continued to improve. He is really capable of scoring double figures this year.

"Drew (Thornton) is a sophomore post player and as a freshman he averaged a double double on varsity with 12 points and12 rebounds," Knight continued. "He has worked hard over the past year and is really going to be a force.

"Landon (Miller) is a senior and is my garbage, guts man," he pointed out. "Last year he drew 22 charges. He is a good help side defensive player and provides a spark to the team."

Knight said Mac Thornton and Mikey Latham, both guards, would be moving up from last season 17-7 jayvee squad. Also joining the varsity will be 6'2" twins Jonathan and Jeremy McGarity, along with Hakeen Whittaker to help carry the load.

"We lost a lot of scoring in Cameron but, we have multiple players capable of scoring double digits on any given night," Knight added. "We are athletic and have decent size and will be able to focus on defense and really get out and pressure some teams. We are going to be young, but if we play to our talent level and not our age level we will be a team that can be in the mix of things."

Bloomfield

8-15, 2-5

Talented Kyle Williamson returns for his senior season at Bloomfield, and with the right supporting cast, the Wildcats could play the role of spoiler as the season plays out.

Williams, an all-region selection last season, will need to duplicate his scoring (19 ppg) and rebounding (9 rpg) efforts if the Wildcats are to be contenders.

Coach Dustin Hicks says his team's greatest weakness this season will be the lack of size, while the strength will be speed and quickness.

"We enter the season with a team full of inexperience at the varsity level," Hick said. "We've had a good summer gaining experience and learning to know one another. We return All-Region guard Kyle Williamson and a lot of talented underclassmen around him.

"We have a lot of players playing new positions so everyday is a learning process," Hick pointed out. "We're not a team that can overlook anyone, but we're also not a team to be overlooked."

In addition to Williamson, returning for another season for the Wildcats are seniors Kyle Rogers, junior Blake Harris, and sophomore Jacob McNeil. New comers to watch for, according to Hicks, are senior Matt King, and juniors Jacob Conner, Corey Smith and Andrew Wilson.

Woodland

8-18, 0-7

The Woodland Cardinals will have one of three new coaches in the SCAA this season is Josh Eftink.

The Cardinals were winless in conference play last season, but have three returning starters to try and move up in the standings this season.

Returning are seniors Jordan King, Caleb Lee and Timmy Abner.

Juniors Kyle Reynolds, Devon James, Logan McCarty, Adam Cureton, Vincent Choate, Josh Freeman and Josh Hahn will join two other seniors, C. J. Kernan and Joe Layton, on the varsity roster.

"This is my first year as a head coach, so I don't know much about the team last year," Eftink said. "I do know that this years team has worked extremely hard for me."