Prep sports notes: Eagles learn to fly again

Closing out with three straight loses including a 52-30 Class 5A tournament first round defeat to Riverton after finishing second in Region 1, the Clearfield boys' basketball team has even more reasons to start off this season pessimistic. They return zero starters and six seniors. Of those seniors, only three had significant playing time.

Falcon's head coach Curtis Hulse doesn't expect to get back to the upper echelon with this crew, but knows he's got some potential and a little experience in this group.

"We have a couple guys with a little bit of varsity experience under the belt. We expect a lot out of those three kids. We need them to be leaders on and off the floor they've got to be the center of what we do offensively and defensively so we expect them to lead and we need production out of those three to be successful."

The three seniors he will be looking to are guard Austin Ford, forward Kolton Young and perpetual post player Chris Brower. Brower would be more highly looked upon, but he suffered season ending knee injury in the middle of season last year to put him out on experience.

Junior Zach Asay will get a chance to earn minutes early because starting point guard Danny Johnson is out until January because of elbow injury suffered in football. Asay will be looking to slip in and fill his role and get solid guard play to get everyone up to rhythm for when Johnson gets back.

Viewmont

Viewmont lost four of its last five to fall to fourth place in Region 1 before running into eventual state champion West Jordan 62-41 in the first round last year.

The spiral continues this year, with zero starters returning and only three kids have any varsity experience at all.

Junior Blake Wilkinson, a 6-foot-5 kid who has the most varsity experience, started towards the end of the year as a sophomore. He'll be next to 6-6 senior Colt Jones, a very physical space-eater who played sparingly last year. He hasn't practiced because of tweaked knee from football.

Of the two, coach Jeff Emery looks to Wilkinson as being the most valuable asset to their team going into the season.

"He's going to give us an inside presence both offensively and defensively. If he can be a consistent low block scorer it'll make a huge difference for us. I think that's critical for any team takes a lot of pressure of your ability to score when you can get easy baskets. If you can throw it up to a guy in the block and e can score, it opens up a lot of things."

Bountiful

Finishing first in Region 5 was sweet for Bountiful last year. But after a 53-34 semi-final loss to Provo, and coming back with no seniors, let alone starters, the road ahead is going to be rocky for the Braves.

Having no seniors on his roster is unprecedented for Braves head coach Mike Maxwell. In his 21 years at the helm of Bountiful's basketball program, he's had at least three seniors each year. He knew he was setting up for a title run, but after graduating nine seniors, it's time to start fresh.

"We were a very senior dominated team last year, took out shot at the title, and now this year we don't," Maxwell said. "It just worked out this way. We're starting over fresh. It's something you got to love about high school basketball, talent comes in cycles. They come as they come and you just got to find a space on the floor as best you can."

Junior Mckay LaSalle one of the best shooters Maxwell has seen in his 21-year tenure and anticipates him being an integral part of the Braves offense of the bat. Size will also work in their favor. Six-foot-4 Nick Williams has quickness beyond his size with the ability hit holes. Six-foot-7 center Dan Prawitt has potential with his mental equity, yielding a 4.0 GPA and picking up concepts fast.

Maxwell might not be thinking about his first championship since 1997, but he knows he has the best squad that was available.

"They're pretty talented kids even though they're so young. It's so unpredictable because these kids coming in are eager to play and to show what they frankly I wouldn't have put them on the team if I didn't they have some abilities. If there was seniors better I'd put them out here."