When Camp Verde High School’s boys basketball team took the floor for its first game during the 2019-20 season, it did so with an experienced group. The team that takes the floor for the Cowboys’ first game this season will be decidedly younger.
Camp Verde lost five players to graduation. The youth of the team, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the normal summer basketball season and now the preseason practices, has made it challenging for coach Dan Wall to evaluate what he’s seen.
“It’s so hard to tell,” Wall said. “We lost a lot last year. We graduated five seniors. We do have some great young kids. For as crazy as the year has been with no summer basketball and just some workouts here and there, they’ve really worked hard on stuff. But it’s hard to say because we haven’t been able to play anybody for such a long time.”
Many of the issues facing the Cowboys are not unique. Schools everywhere are figuring out how to adjust to the pandemic. Additionally, high school teams everywhere lose players to graduation every year. That said, not many teams are replacing a scorer as prolific as Jason Collier, who graduated in 2020.
Collier averaged 26.1 points per game in his senior season. That total was easily the best on his own team and one of the best 120 scoring averages in the country, which includes states that — unlike Arizona — use the shot clock. The 26.1 points per game was the sixth-best scoring average in the state. The Cowboys know that replacing that output will be a team effort.
“I’d say we need ball movement,” senior Mason Rayburn said. “Last year we would give it to Jason and he would do the rest. This year we don’t have that one standout person who’s going to average that many points.”
“It will be more of a collective effort this year. It will be more, as a group, penetrate and pitch, make the extra pass, finding who’s open and who’s shooting the ball well on a particular night,” Wall added. “The good thing is that there’s some kids that can really shoot the basketball this year. So we’re looking forward to seeing who steps up once the game situations come around to see how that translates.”
The good news for Camp Verde is that while no one player will replace Collier’s output, the cupboard isn’t exactly bare.
Junior Chino Salas-Zorrilla averaged 14.5 points per game a season ago, which was second on the team. His 4.1 assists per game and 3.1 steals per game both led the Cowboys while his 4.5 rebounds per game were third on the team.
The only returning player to bring in more rebounds was Rayburn, who pulled down 4.6 boards per game. Rayburn and junior Cristoph Castro averaged 5.8 and 5.3 points per game, respectively, while both averaged 1.6 steals a game on defense.
The Cowboys are also dealing with a move to 3A. Even at 2A, the Cowboys were generally smaller than most of their opponents, with lineups often featuring four or even five guards. That made playing at a fast pace important. With the move up a level, that will be even more of a necessity this season — something the team feels good about.
“I think the team’s pretty good,” Salas-Zorrilla said. “We’re quicker on the floor, everybody can score, there are no missing spots.”
One of the other unique aspects of this season will be the schedule. The late start means that fewer games will be played. But in an attempt to get as many games played as possible, most weeks will feature three games, up from the normal two. Wall noted that while the schedule can create some headaches for coaches in trying to prepare for so many games in a short window, the players love it.
And while the youth of the Cowboys creates some uncertainty, it also creates a nice advantage going forward.
The team next year will be very similar to this season, with Rayburn being the lone senior. So, while winning as many games as possible this season is of course still a goal, creating more chemistry for next year and in some cases, beyond, is also a priority.
“I really want to get connected with these guys with team bonding as the season goes on,” Castro said. “I do want to win games. But as long as we’re together, that’s the main focus. We’re going to stick together as we go on.”
