It has already been next man up for North Callaway boys basketball this summer.

There have been several young men with more playing time through the Thunderbirds’ more than 14 varsity games. Varsity won two more games on June 17 at a Fulton shootout against Linn and South Callaway while junior varsity split its two games against South Callaway and Linn, only losing to South Callaway by four points.

“With our varsity guys, we saw some really good improvements,”  head coach Matt Miller said. “We had a couple games through a little part of the summer where we were lackadaisical. They had really good focus in here tonight. Guys were playing together, flying around and diving on the floor for loose balls. We were just really aggressive and active tonight.”

North Callaway went 3-0 in its first day of shootout games, Miller said, but then had some “lulls” before his kids adjusted to varsity basketball. He has seen the progress since running the kids through basketball activities since the last week of May. 

“It’s awesome in the summer to figure that out and not December,” Miller said. “This was probably our best night of basketball today.”

Miller said North Callaway will be breaking more kids into the starting lineup after graduating three starters from a season ago. He said several have had to move up in the rotation or from JV to varsity, but he likes how they have meshed. 

The Thunderbirds had about seven or eight freshmen, according to Miller, that showed up for their June 17 summer scrimmage games. He expects North Callaway to have plenty to sort through on the roster and likes how they have progressed during the summer.

“With the younger guys, we’re seeing them get better,” head coach Matt Miller said. “They’re getting from the first game, to the second game to today. They’re getting better from last week to today. They’re starting to figure out some things and figure out the pace of high school basketball.”