Every team plays to its greatest strengths, and for this season’s Camp Verde High School boys basketball team, that means playing an up-tempo style and working hard on the defensive end.
With only four players returning from last year’s varsity — three of them guards — and only one player over 6 feet tall, the Cowboys will simply need to outwork their competition at both ends of the floor.
“My goal is to get the kids to play as hard as they can possibly play every single night and I really want to see growth from the start to the end of the year,” said Cowboys head boys basketball coach Dan Wall, in his second year as varsity coach.
“In practice, it’s always rough early in the year, but the goal is just to see them develop as a team throughout the year,” he said.
Sophomore Javier Perez returns at the point guard position, while senior returners Marlon Ontiveros and Javier Carrillo will start at the wings. The fourth returning player is 6-foot-3-inch junior Bram Hickey, who will man the post position.
Freshman Dion Fortune, who led the football team from the quarterback position, is another guard who will compete for time. Wall thinks Fortune will develop into a solid player.
“He’s very athletic, light on his feet and he picks things up really well,” Wall said. “So we’ll see how it goes this year, but he’s definitely got potential for down the road.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 27, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
