HOOPS PREVIEW: North Callaway boys teeming with experience this season

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 11/30/22

This could be the time the North Callaway boys make a run.

The 2022 Thunderbirds at least have brimming experience on their side in what is “one of the more veteran teams” Matt Miller …

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HOOPS PREVIEW: North Callaway boys teeming with experience this season

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This could be the time the North Callaway boys make a run.

The 2022 Thunderbirds at least have brimming experience on their side in what is “one of the more veteran teams” Matt Miller has had going into his seventh year as the head coach. He said his team should definitely not look too far ahead and take it game by game and hopefully the big long-term goals like a conference title will follow.

“My goals are simplistic, but I want to get better every single day,” Miller said. “Every night, whoever we play against, you want to be 1-0. You can get a crystal ball, look ahead and say I want to win conference or I want to win district. Every team wants to do that. I don’t know how many wins we’re going to have, but I told our guys the first day of practice, ‘You come here and give great effort, great attitude and be a great teammate. You do those things, with a championship attitude, the scoreboard will take care of itself.”’

From its 14-11 team a year ago, Miller said North Callaway returns its top seven or eight players, including Eastern Missouri Conference players, senior Matthew Weber and junior Sam Pezold, who were their top two scorers at 21.2 and 12.8 points per game. Senior Braydn O’Neal has started at point guard since sophomore year and post player Trenton Jones has been on varsity since sophomore year. Seniors Jordan Fishburn, Gavin Rasmussen and Brendan Reinhard had quality minutes last season along with junior Isiah Craighead.

Newcomers include juniors Aidan Martin and Paul Russell, who stood out on last season’s junior varsity squad to round out the 10-11 players Miller expects to have on varsity.

“We don’t have projected starters necessarily,” Miller said. “I feel like we have seven or eight guys who can start. Most times, we might be having two or three guys returning and you’re filling in with sophomores and maybe some freshman on varsity, but you’ve got a whole group of juniors and seniors that you don’t see too much at our level in high school basketball anymore, which is hopefully a strength and advantage for us.”

Miller said this roster is also proficient when it comes to shooting, quickness and ball handling. The Thunderbirds’ speed, in particular, helped them use a trap defense that forced many turnovers that saw the ball going the other way. He said North Callaway should be building on all of that.

“We played fast last year so we want to play faster,” Miller said. “We could guard people last year so we want to be able to guard harder, guard better and trap more. Last year was a big step for our program in the right direction.”

North Callaway was able to finish high in the conference standings and were in the running for the title but were also on the wrong end of close losses to Clopton (46-43) and reigning EMO champion Elsberry (55-51). It was encouraging to see the Thunderbirds competing well with the best of the conference so Miller said they want to be in that position again in February.

“We were in a lot of those close games last year,” Miller said. “Those are our goals like any other team, but if you come into every day with a championship attitude, those goals down the road always take care of themselves.”


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