The Manning High School varsity Monarchs finished the 2017-18 basketball season with a 10-15 record and 3-7 in the region.
The team made it to the playoffs, but lost in the first round to Laurens High School.
“Obviously, we want to do better this year, and we’re working toward that,” said Head Coach Rolando Shuler.
The team started practicing a couple of weeks ago, but was hampered by several players still involved with football. The Monarchs’ football team ended its season Nov. 3 with a loss in the first round of the state playoffs.
“Considering we had a lot of people playing football, our first scrimmage a week ago went really well,” he said. “We did really well, and the team did what I expected of them.”
Shuler said he is concentrating most on the team’s defense during practices.
“We’re working on defense every chance we can,” he said. “We have always won on offense, but defense needs to be better. Our biggest weakness last year was our defense.”
Shuler said the team lost 10 seniors to graduation in 2017. The team has four returning players, two of which will definitely be starters.
“We also have two new players coming up from our junior varsity team that went undefeated,” Shuler said. “It is going to be a really good mix of talent.”
He said the team’s toughest hurdles will be games against Lakewood High School, Bishop-England High School and Timberland High School.
“There’s a rivalry there with Lakewood, because it’s about 15 minutes away,” he said. “The team wants a go at each other and the fans want to go at each other. It’s wild.”
He said Bishop England got what the team wanted in the 2016-17 season.
“They got the region championship; that’s what we want,” he said. “We want our region this year. That will be a big game for us.”
Shuler said his key players will be junior guard Darius Williams and D.J. Felder.
“(Williams) is a good shooter, is solid and a really good leader,” he said. “He played with e the last two years at junior varsity.”
He said Felder is a great defensive-style player.
“My expectations are really high; the team’s expectations are really high,” Shuler said. “I’ve coached everyone here except for one guy. They know what my expectations are. We want to win. How high we can go, I don’t know yet. But we want to make it to the first round of the playoffs.”
