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Smoky Mountain basketball practice to open on Monday
Smoky Mountain’s basketball teams will open practice Monday, Oct. 31, at the school gym.
The varsity and JV men will practice from 3:15-5:15 p.m. The JV women will practice from 5:15-6:45 p.m. with the varsity women practicing from 6:45-8:45 p.m.
The Lady Mustangs were 21-8 last season and reached the 3-A sectional finals. They are optimistic about the upcoming campaign after realignment put the school in the 2-A Western Athletic Conference.
“We had a good off season in the spring and summer,” Coach Cindi Simmons said. “We had good turnout at workouts and had a very good trip to camp at North Carolina.”
Nine returnees, including record-setting junior point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid, are back from last year. In her two seasons, DeGraffenreid has already set school records for points in a game (46), season (756) and career (1,440) and steals in a season (174) and career (310).
Seniors back from a year ago are Ashley Coggins and Sky Kanott.
Joining DeGraffenreid as returning juniors are Amy Haggard, Laury Brown, Kelli Woodard, Brandi Anders, Rachel Stewman and Jenna Carpenter.
“We’re looking forward to the season getting under way,” Simmons said. “The new conference presents a new challenge.”
Simmons was still in the process of finalizing her staff at the Herald sports deadline.
The Mustang men were 8-18 last year and have had losing seasons 11 of the past 12 years. They will be looking to several young players to reverse that trend.
“As always at this time of year, I’m excited,” Coach Scott Hartbarger said. “We’ve got the defending state champions (Pisgah) in our conference, and Brevard is returning just about everybody.”
Senior Tyson Crawford returns to the starting lineup. Also back from last year are seniors Cory Siler and Matt Hawkins and sophomore Martin Davis.
“We’re going to be very young, but that’s a good thing sometimes,” Hartbarger said. “I’m glad that we play so many non-conference games before we get to the conference schedule (Jan. 6). I’ll think we’ll be an exciting team to watch. We’ll have some quickness and pretty good depth.
Hartbarger will be assisted by Adam Phillips and Daniel Mitchell. Jim Hartbarger will coach the JVs. His assistants will be Todd Drum and Ron Watson.
The season is slated to open Nov. 18 at Erwin. The first home game is set for Dec. 2 against Cherokee. Some early season games could be postponed due to opponents participating in the state football playoffs.
The teams will scrimmage Hayesville at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10. The women will play at home with the men on the road.
The Lady Mustangs will scrimmage at Robbinsville Tuesday, Nov. 15, with the time to be announced. The men might scrimmage at Robbinsville that day as well, but they also might practice instead, Hartbarger said.
The schedule is as follows:
Nov. 18 – at Erwin (no JVs); 25 – at Cherokee (no JVs); 29 – at Murphy.
Dec. 2 – Cherokee; 3 – Rabun County (Ga.); 9 – at Franklin; 10 – Swain; 16 – at Tuscola; 19 – at Swain; 27 – Erwin; 30 – at Rabun County.
Jan. 3 – Franklin; 6 – at Brevard; 10 – at East Henderson; 13 – at North Henderson; 17 – at West Henderson; 20 – Pisgah; 24 – Tuscola; 27 – Brevard; 31 – East Henderson.
Feb. 3 – North Henderson; 7 – West Henderson; 9 – at Pisgah.
The WAC Tournament will be played at SM the week of Feb. 13.
Other fall sports, including wrestling and swimming, are allowed to open practice Monday. No information was available regarding those programs as head coaches had not been named at the Herald sports deadline.
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