Last year, Glendale saw an undersized varsity basketball team without seniors grow up and become a force to be reckoned with here in the Ozarks. The team went 17-9 and finished third in the Ozarks conference. Now the whole cast is back for a sequel that is promising to be better.  

   “We’re picking up right where we left off. We have everybody back with a year of experience under their belt,” junior Cameron Johnson said.  

   Transitioning into this season was smooth for the Falcons. The team jelled in practice and players figured out their roles early. The team overcame small bumps in the road like senior Tommy Hedges’s minor injury. 

   “I sprained my ankle early on. I had to rehab it for a week and it set me back a bit in getting into game condition,” Hedges said.  

   The team’s hard work in practice transitioned into its tough opening tournament — the Tip-Off Classic held at Kickapoo. The team’s opening game was against the Bulldogs from Fayetteville, Ark., who last year went 30-0 and won the Class Seven State Championship in Arkansas. The team had a 42-34 lead at the half and never surrendered it from there in route to a 72-62 win.  

   “We all played well. If one of us didn’t score points, they were drawing fouls, forcing turnovers and playing tough defense,” junior Joey Harbour said. “I didn’t score many points but I hit all my foul shots.” 

   The Tip-Off Classic was an overall success for the Falcons with senior Casey Wagnor being named to the all-tournament team and wining all three of their games with their record-setting performance against St. Louis Imagine College Prep Bears highlighting the weekend.  They racked up 104 points against the Bears, which is the most any team at Glendale has scored in a game.  

   “We didn’t even mean to score over 100 points. We didn’t even press,” head coach Sean Williamson said. “We just had great transition from offense to defense. We hit our 3-pointers and made shots even in to the fourth quarter, and that was turbo clocked.” 

  Next up in a slate of early games for the Falcons was the St. Francis Borgia Knights, who went 30-1 last season and were the Class Four state runner-up. The results of this game went like the previous three as the Falcons played better in the first and last quarters of the game, which helped them grab an 86-60 win.   

   Overall, the team opened up with a slate of games against much tougher teams as compared to the previous year, when it blew out a collection of area teams in the Annual Buffalo Tournament. 

   “This tournament allowed us to be challenged more, which was needed for our team,” Williamson said. “We beat some teams that should have some impressive records by the end of the season and this should ultimately help us, come conference and district time.” 

   The road doesn’t get any easier for the Falcons as they open the season’s first home games against Branson and Nixa. 

   “Branson has size and are athletic; basically us, but bigger,” Johnson said.  

   The team will haze size issues like it did last year. The team is one of the smallest in the region, but can make up for that in other areas. 

   “We can spread teams out that are bigger and over-extend them,” Williamson said. “We’ll need to do that, especially against a team like Branson or Nixa.” 

   Also, the other lingering problem will be lack of a true inside big man. The team will have to make up for that together without putting the burden on one player. 

   “I’ll play inside a lot against most big guys, but as a team we will have to shut them down,” Johnson said. 

   Williamson also reiterated that point and his point of a team concept. 

   “We can’t just expect Cameron to match up one-on-one against a 6’7” guy the whole time. We have to get in between them and the basket and force big guys to pass back out and not give teams any easy shots like lay-ups.” 

   The team concept should help cure some of the problems of last season. 

   “We are also a lot more mature of a team.  We’re not a bunch of new guys. We all have around 30 games of varsity basketball under our belts now,” Harbour said.  

   This will come in handy against cross-town rivals Parkview and Kickapoo, who got the best of the Falcons last season. Parkview starts the season as the News-Leader’s pick to win the Ozark Conference. 

   “Against Parkview, we have to make it a fast, quick game and control the tempo — force them to go up and down with us,” Hedges said. 

   Johnson added, “We have to close out and challenge all their shots. Any of their starters can shoot well.” 

   As always, ultimate rival Kickapoo will still be very talented, as they bring back a lot of players that should overcome Missouri State signee and transfer Christian Kirk being ruled ineligible.  This season’s meeting on Feb. 8 will break the 43-43 overall series tie. 

   “This year’s game is going be another good game. They are a lot like us. They have a size advantage, but I think we can spread them out and play solid team defense on them,” Williamson said. 

   Playing with the Chiefs hasn’t been the problem in the last couple meetings, its been closing out games. The Falcons have taken leads into the fourth quarter of the last three match-ups and ended up losing all three games. 

   “We match up well against them, we just have to execute our game and run down the clock when we have the lead and only take lay-ups,” Johnson said. 

   Although the team may be young, it will have more than 50 games of varsity experience under its belt come this year’s districts. That, combined with a more mature attitude, should help silence the critics who believe it is still “one year away.”