The BIC Mustangs looked primed for a down season in 2022-2023 . With that said , Coach Taylor Layne and the Ponies proved the naysayers wrong as they came out red hot . Their great start followed by a midseason return from Nick Patterson catapulted the Mustangs to a co-share of the 2A-3 Conference title . Coach Layne loses three solid role players in Parker Anderson , Jack Edwards , and Dawson Stewart but returns their top three players in Patterson , Jax Whitley and Riley Whitehead . BIC did miss the regional tournament after losing a quarterfinals district tournament match to Earle . That alone should leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the returning trio of seniors . Patterson will play the guard spot . He left the team after the departure of Mike Kinard and missed out on half the season last year . “ Nick is a physical player on the offensive and defensive end ,” told Coach Layne . “ He is a talented player that is looking to build on what he done last year .” Because of the absence of Patterson , the Mustangs needed someone to step up and be the man . Jax Whitley jumped all over the opportunity and put together an incredible junior season finishing all-conference . “ Jax became a scoring threat over the year last year . In the off-season , he has put in the work to becoming more physical and better on the defensive end .” Rounded out the three headed monster is Whitehead who stands at a monstrous 6 ’ 8 . “ Riley is a 6 ' 8 center that has improved a lot in two years . We are looking forward to seeing what the big man can do this year .” Whitehead has the size but if his strength has improved he will be tough to compete against . Two other seniors should round out the starting five in Hank Hurst and Max McCord . McCord is described as being the team ’ s vocal leader . Hurst is all over the court and works his tail off . A pair of sophomores move up in Leo Contreras and Kell Gathright . “ Both of my sophomores have had a big off-season . They will play a significant role in everything that we do . The best thing about it for them is that we have great senior leaders on this team that pushes them to be the best they can be .” Coach Layne had this to say about the upcoming season . “ We have three returning starters that were the bulk of our scoring a lot of the time last year . We have a very unselfish team that have accepted their roles and do them the best they can . We have a senior heavy team along with good underclassman , that are hungry to win and will leave it all out there every night . We play in extremely tough conference , and we are looking forward to it being a dog fight every night . Our goal is to get better as the season goes on and compete every single night .” BIC was able to fly under the radar last season . Opposing teams won ’ t make that mistake this year . Look for BIC to finish near the top of the conference with a chance to win it while punching their ticket past district into the regional and state tournament .
The BIC Lady Mustangs had an up and down season in 2022-2023 . They finished middle of the pack in the conference and had moments where they shined . However , they failed to make the regional tournament in an upset loss to the Bay Lady Yellowjackets . With all that being said , Coach Trevor Matheny ’ s Lady Ponies will look to improve and shine even more this year . BIC loses two starters in Krystyn Hawkins and Jonesboro Sun “ Newcomer of the Year ” Hadlie Goodson . Seniors Hallee Wells and Arabella Oliver return to start for the Lady Mustangs . Wells will play forward with the ability to play inside and out . Oliver will play a guard position and can shoot . Junior , forward Riley Parker will play a post position . Other key players for Coach Matheny will include a pair of sophomores in forward Josephine Hanneken and guard Jaylyn Cagle . Hanneken is a hard worker , runs the floor well and crashes the boards hard . Cagle can shoot it well at times . “ We are just trying to improve off an early out in district last season ,” explained Coach Matheny . “ I feel like that left a sour taste in our mouths , and we are hungrier this year . We want to defend better and make sure we come up with every 50 / 50 ball .” The Lady Mustangs will have an uphill battle to climb . NEA Sports believes that the Lady Mustangs will be in a tough battle for the final spot to go to the regional tournament .