The Oxford Chargers boys basketball team is kicking off their season in a few days on Nov. 5th. The Chargers will take on Coffeeville in their first game this season. The Chargers are expecting the play well this season and hoping to once again make the state play-offs.
“The expectations for this season are playing great as a team and succeeding in all of the aspects of our game,” sophomore Miles Bledsoe said.
The Chargers are facing a few challenges as a team this season, a majority of which are based off of the size on the team.
“The basketball teams lack of height and size will be a challenge we will have to overcome this year,” senior Preston Myatt said. “Especially when you are 7A school in Mississippi and all of the other schools have a bunch of size.”
The Chargers will have to learn how to overcome these challenges by playing to their advantages of being a smaller team and being able to move quicker.
“We have had a lot of intrasquad scrimmages and a number of my players play on their own time at OPC, Turner Center and South Rec, therefore that helps build a better player for 7A basketball in Mississippi,” Head Coach Drew Tyler said. “We just need early games to help us get seasoned for region play. I implement different drills and challenges into our practices to test their mental and physical toughness in order to get them ready for the lows and highs of a long high school basketball season.”
The Chargers are keeping high goals in mind this season and hope to stay in the state play-offs as long as possible.
“Our goal for this season is to move forward out of the region tournament as the number one or number two team and test our luck in the state play-offs,” Tyler said. “We want to protect our home court with wins and to beat our cross-town rival, which we have beat them 53 times out of the last 60 times.”
The Chargers may lack in size, but have a lot of athleticism on the team that will bring this team together to play at a faster pace against the larger teams.
“Jay Burt brings instant leadership, varsity minutes under his belt, toughness and he is our quarterback on the floor,” Tyler said. “Grant Young and James Desler both bring a three point threat to the offensive end and can help us spread defenses out because of their ability to make shots from the perimeter. Miles Bledsoe will really impress fans, opponents, and opposing coaching because of his growth on offense with his ability to make shots from anywhere and his improved quickness to get past his defender. Bledsoe has shown a lot of grit and grind in his overall game and on defense. Jakavion Majors, is athletic and can help draw mismatches for us. He has a basketball body that carries over to playing different speeds and we can use him in a lot of different positions. Cori Johnson and Colin Flanigan are still on the football field and both will give us more athleticism, they can help play roles that give us success around the goal and allow us to play at a faster pace.”
The Chargers are still searching for their group chemistry this season as they are a young team learning how to be better
basketball players together.
“Our team chemistry is still in question because we only having one returning starter, but even with a lot of sophomores and one freshman getting playing time we have seen glimpses of good play on the defensive and offensive ends of the court,” Tyler said.
