For the second straight season since taking over as head coach of the Crittenden County Rockets, Matt Fraliex must unexpectedly replace his leading scorer.
Last year, Travis Champion was injured early in the season causing a 22-point gap in the Rocket offense that allowed sophomore Bryson Walker to have a breakout season earning All-District honors and scoring 19 points a game.
However, Walker transferred to Livingston Central in the off-season leaving Fraliex with another offensive gap to fill. He’s hoping the addition of some players from other sports in the Rocket athletic tree will not only build depth on the team but also provide some production.
Fraliex will look to a group that saw considerable time on the floor but didn’t produce big offensive numbers.
Senior Camron Belcher earned a starting spot midway through the season and responded with three points and two rebounds.
Senior Jonah Reddick has grown to be 6-7 and added some muscle but will miss some time in December as he heals from a non-sports health issue. He scored five points and grabbed five rebounds while showing flashes in the paint.
Junior Brayden Poindexter, senior Kaiden Travis, and sophomore Brady Dayberry also return from a year ago.
Fraliex is also getting some reinforcements from other sports.
“We’ve got a couple of guys coming in from football that haven’t played in a couple of years. We’ve picked up one from baseball that hasn’t played in a couple of years that’s going to give us a little bit of depth that we really lacked last year,” he said.
Senior Chase Conyer and junior Caden Howard both play football and will join junior Ethan Thomas on the roster.
“They are learning and growing. Our focus has mainly just been about our guys and developing the guys we have after basically losing the entire lineup from last season, Fraliex said. “We’ve got guys that are going to be playing positions that possibly they’ve never played before. Roles have gotten bigger now and the guys have really kind of been sponges. They’ve soaked a lot of stuff in.”
How quickly and how well the players mesh will determine the team’s success.
“We have a mentality that we’ve created over the summer. It’s a brotherhood mentality and it’s being able to trust each other and depend on each other. It’s not just all about one guy or two guys. If somebody’s out then we’ve got to have somebody else step up and be ready to go,” Fraliex said.
Crittenden County showed at times last year they could control the tempo and play solid defense, holding six opponents under 60 points. They won just two of those games.
“That was one thing we struggled with last year — putting the ball in the basket. We played incredible defense, and there were nights we held teams to 40, 50 points but when you’re only scoring 40, 42, 43 that night, it’s going to make it extremely difficult to win,” Fraliex said.
He is hoping with some added depth, the Rockets can play a little faster this season.
“With the athletes that we have, I would love to be able to play a game that is fast tempo, getting the ball up and down the floor offensively, looking to get shots up, and looking to get the ball in the basket.”
BIG GAMES
The Rockets will be busy around the holidays with a trip to the St. Mary Christmas Classic – a field that annually includes small schools from the first four regions.
After Christmas, the Rockets will play a game in the Western Kentucky Hoops Classic at Caldwell County.
The rest of the schedule is a mix of small schools in the First and Second Regions as well as matchups with Apollo, Hopkinsville, Paducah Tilghman, and Caldwell County.
And for the first time in 5th District history, Matt and his cousin Michael, the first-year coach at Trigg County, will go head to head-to-head on the sidelines. The first matchup is on Dec. 10 in Cadiz with a Rocket home game with the Wildcats on Jan. 14.
UNDER THE RADAR PLAYER
With a lot of unknowns on the team, Fraliex feels like most of his roster could fly under some radars. However, he thinks Belcher can build on last year’s second-half success.
“He does an incredible job at slicing through a defense and I’ve issued a challenge to him to lead the region in steals and assists because he does an incredible job at driving to the basket and he draws defenders. And we’ve got guys surrounding him this year that we feel confident about shooting the ball,” Fraliex said.
OUTLOOK
Crittenden County always puts a tough and gritty team on the floor and that trait will help them early in the season. Once the new players learn their roles and the returning players adjust, it will be interesting to see what this Rocket team can do by the time the district tournament rolls around.
