By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After consecutive 3rd-place finishes, Logan-Rogersville boys are hungrier than ever
Two years ago the Logan-Rogersville boys basketball team went 28-4 and earned third place in Class 4––and then the Wildcats did the exact same thing last season.
Rogersville took a 16-game winning streak into the state semifinals and lost 61-53 to Benton before beating Potosi by 18 in the third-place game. In the process the Wildcats won their seventh district championship in eight years and posted their seventh 20-win season in the same span.
Of course, Rogersville (82-12 the last three seasons) wasn’t exactly satisfied with that finish.
“Exact same record and the exact same place as we got the year before. Everybody was super happy but we felt like we could have done better,” said head coach John Schaefer. “I think you always hear the slogan ‘unfinished business’ or whatever, all the corny lines, which sucks in a way because they had a fantastic season. We ended third in the state, and I felt like it was a letdown. It’s a good thing to have that mentality of hey we want to be bigger and better but at the same time I don’t know if we really appreciated what we did with the schedule we had. I was super proud of those guys. They’re so hungry that they’re not going to be happy unless they win a state championship. That’s what I would take away from last year to this year. I don’t think anything’s changed, the drive hasn’t changed and our schedule is way harder than what it was even the past two years. I don’t know if we can go 28-4 with the schedule we have and the shootouts we’re in but I think they’re going to have another great shot to have a great year.”
That “great shot” starts with three returning starters and last year’s sixth man who will move into the starting lineup. The returners are highlighted by junior Chase Branham, a Class 4 All-State honoree who was the Ozark Mountain Conference player of the year after averaging 19.2 points as a sophomore. The point guard is a top 50 prospect in the nation and has verbally committed to play at Indiana.
“That takes off some pressure he had, he can focus more on high school basketball and having fun being a kid,” Schaefer said. “I’m looking forward to that. It’s not so much having to prove yourself every game. He’s headed to Indiana.”
The Wildcats also return sophomore Titus Moore, a first team OMC pick, and senior Marcus Moore, a second team all-conference player. Sophomore Jack Sutherland (OMC All-Defensive team) was last year’s sixth man, with current senior Beau Watts also sharing time in that role. Senior Sutton Shook is one of the best shooters in the area, comparable to Jase Pettifurd, Schaefer said.
“We feel really good with the group we’ve got coming back,” Schaefer said. “We’re going to miss some senior leadership out of Jase Pettifurd and Dane Smith (1st and 3rd team OMC, respectively) but we may be more athletic in some areas. Obviously the Moore boys, Marcus came on strong this summer and really started to be a dominant force in the post. Especially in this area, right now I think there’s a lack of post play. It’s guard-oriented and he’s still a true post player. That makes it good for him being 6-6 230 and he’s going to have a great senior year with a lot of schools looking at him. Titus will have a chance to play D1 and he’s a sophomore; those guys are going to be a load. I look for Sutton to break out, he’s had a lot of college interest and had five or six 3s in some big games in Kansas City. That really got some notice with colleges starting to contact him. We have a lot of depth this year with guard play.”
“That talented group of sophomores have been undefeated all their lives so they’re about to get thrown into the fire,” he said. “We’ve got high expectations of them and we’ll see how it all plays out.
That sophomore class also includes Peyton Felton, Cooper Richards and Zach Watts, three players who will play “quite a bit” in their second years with the program. And some juniors who got JV experience last year will help fill out the roster.
Put it all together and Schaefer was impressed with what he saw from the group over the summer, including some wins over teams he didn’t expect to beat.
“And beating them in a fashion that was pretty impressive to me,” he said. “We went up to the showcase in Kansas City and played four of the best schools from Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. I kind of had an epiphany like wow, they’re serious, they want to play. Really I just look forward to watching them grow this year. They’re good, they’re talented but there’s still a lot of room for improvement, especially for some young guys on their skills. They have a high ceiling but haven’t quite gotten to where they can be.
Rogersville tips off the season in the Lee’s Summit Eagle Invitational and opens the home slate against Helias Catholic on Dec. 16 before the Blue and Gold Tournament in late December.
“We’ll play Chaminade in the Highland Shootout which is a big environment,” Schaefer said. “We’ll travel up there and play them. And we also have obviously the Tournament of Champions and the Nixa tournament is always loaded. If we can get to the championship in Kansas City to start our season we’ll probably play Summit Christian, that’s always a tough battle and they went to the Final Four last year and return pretty much all their guys. There are no easy games. Even our non-conference games include Hartville who’s always good coming to our place. In the regular season we play Ozark. We don’t have a night off. Just looking at it on paper, it looks a little harder than the norm.”
