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HANNIBAL — After a trip to the district finals last year, the River Pilots enter the 2023-24 season with some holes to fill, but plenty of returning talent up to the task.
River head coach Mark Romick's lost two 1,000-point scorers in Ty Long and Brody Lollathin along with big man Stone Thompson.
"We've lost quite a bit of firepower," Romick said
Nevertheless, Romick was confident he will enter the year with a group who can perform out of the gate and build themselves up throughout year.
The Pilots head coach sees four players shouldering a load early in the season while the rest\ of the team's pieces figure things out, with the foursome fortunately occupying a number of different roles and skill sets.
"Kabel Isaly returns, a really nice point guard, does a lot of things well, shoots the ball well and distributes the ball," Romick said. "Finn Bowers and Kaden Johnson are two guys, kind of a wing player and a post player, they're two seniors and they're expected to do some of the scoring.
"Reed Willis is a senior who started a lot last year, along with some other guys. We're looking at those guys to really provide the brunt of the offense and really to help us early on do a lot of things […] They've been there, they played a lot last year, a 25, 26-game season. They know the ins-and-outs."
Isaly enters his senior year closing in on 1,000 points, "around 100 away" according to Romick.
River is also expecting contributions from players outside those core four, including Lucas Dennis, a star running back for River who is once again coming out for the basketball team after sitting out last year.
"Lucas brings a lot of athleticism, a lot of quickness to the game," Romick said. "Carson Makris, Derek Smith, Derek's a junior, Carson's a senior, both expected to see minutes.
Carson's a good shooter, he's got the capability of scoring from the perimeter, Derrick's a big post player, can give us some minutes there."
Romick also made note of Peyton Blue, a six-foot-one forward who was injured during the football season. There is hope he may be able to return at some point during the season.
"We have some experience coming back, we're going to have to rely on those four main guys early on until everyone else gets acclimated," Romick said.
With the departures of last year's senior class went much of River's height, meaning the roster will have to buy-in as a unit to compete on the glass this year.
"We're not going to be a really tall team," Romick said. "Last year we had size, we don't have as much size this year, so rebounding's going to be a factor. We have to do a good job on the boards, we have to be able to check people off of the boards, because we're not overly big.
"That's a concern right now, one of the things we're working on in practice."
Another concern is firing on all cylinders right out of the gate with many of the players the Pilots will be counting on coming off a deep playoff run in the football season.
"It takes a while for football players to get their shooting touch back," Romick said.
Expectations are high entering the year though, for a team that won 20 basketball games last season and made a deep playoff run of their own. Setting and striving for goals is important for Romick and his new-look River squad.
"We always want to win our league, we want to win the OVAC, get to the district tournament at least and see what we can do there," Romick said.
"We made it to the district finals last year. Those are always goals that we have, I think it's important to set goals for kids because they have to know what we're shooting for."