By Chris Parker
Veteran coach Larry Brown takes over as head coach of the Niangua boys basketball program this season. Brown, who is the third coach in as many years for Niangua, has a 256-152 record across 30 years of coaching.
He inherits a program coming off a three-win season with a wealth of experience returning.
“It will take a bit for us to find our way but the positive is that we return everyone but one senior lost from last season and the addition of some guys we think can help us immediately,” Brown said.
Juniors Matt Sanchez, Avin Hamilton, David Stuber, Cliffton Stoeppelmann and Ezekiel Venolia along with senior Joseph Klingler and sophomore Josh Dixon all saw varsity action last season. Hamilton led that group in scoring at 11.5 per game last season. Dixon was second at 6.3 points per game. Stuber and Sanchez each had 3.3 rebounds per game to tie for the lead of the returning group with Stuber adding 5.4 points and Sanchez 4.5 points per game.
Sophomore Teagan Dunn along with freshmen Colton Kirksey and Lucas Johnston are newcomers who could impact varsity.
“We will need to improve on taking care of the basketball on offense and getting better on the defensive end,” Brown said.
Niangua opens the season Nov. 21 at Halfway.
“I think depth will be our strength, as I believe we will play a lot of guys which should make practices very competitive every day,” Brown said. “We believe we can be competitive by the end of the season and our goal will to be playing to play our best basketball in February.”
