It only took three years, but talent may have finally caught up with coaching in the Camp Verde High School boys basketball program.
Incoming senior and leading scorer Javier Perez averaged more than 20 points per game to propel the Cowboys to six wins in their last seven games of the summer.
“This has been a great summer,” head coach Dan Wall said. “All the young kids have been, very consistently, showing up, working on things and getting better.”
In their final two games of the summer Tuesday, June 30, at Sedona Red Rock High School, the Cowboys rolled Williams High School by 22, then went out on a high note with an 18-point win over Northland Preparatory Academy.
“We lost in double overtime in Flag[staff], and then we lost to them by five a couple weeks ago,” Wall said. “I think the confidence is starting to build a little bit. We’re finally starting to feel like we can get over the top in those close games.
“The next step is figuring out, mentally, what decisions to make down the stretch and how to make those big plays.”
In their inaugural home round-robin tournament June 26, all of the Cowboys’ wins — besides a 25-point victory over “much-improved” Ash Fork High School — were within 10 points, Wall said.
CVHS summer victories have also included victories over Chino Valley, Hopi, Round Valley and St. Johns high schools as well as a three-game sweep of Sedona Red Rock High School — all upcoming Division IV, Section I opponents.
This has all been accomplished without junior Aaron Tracy, a 38 percent three-point shooter who required surgery to mend a shoulder that “popped” for the second time this year in March, Wall said.
“We haven’t seen him all summer,” he said. “Hopefully, he does some therapy and bounces back [by] late September [or] early October.”
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, July 8, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
