Veteran trio to guide Patriots
By Steve Keenan the fayette tribune
The Midland Trail boys will remain in Class AAA this season , but have moved over to the other side of the section tournament bracket .
“ We switched sides of the section ,” said veteran head coach Curtis Miller . “ It ’ s Trail , PikeView , Shady and Independence . They moved Lewis County into our spot on the ( previous ) side , because Westside dropped down and we took their spot .”
Lewis will join Nicholas County , Herbert Hoover and Sissonville in the other section .
A year ago , the Patriots fashioned an 8-13 record , being eliminated 63-48 by Herbert Hoover on the first night of tournament play .
“ They beat us by 30 both times in the regular season ,” Miller recalled . “ We were up three towards the end of the third quarter ( in tourney play ). We played them tight in the sectional . The Hatfield boy got hot in the fourth quarter .”
“ We started out 4-1 , then we got the Covid bug again and we got the injury bug ,” he said . “ From Jan . 3 until the sectional game against Hoover , we never had a full squad . We had a different starting lineup every night . It was kind of frustrating last year because we never got in a rhythm because of all the injuries .
“ We played a lot of people last year , and I think that is going to help this
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F . Brian Ferguson / For The Register-Herald
Midland Trail ’ s Cody Harrell , left , battles Summers County ’ s Trent Meador for the ball Jan . 25 in Hico .
year . We lost John Paul Morrison . He was our player last year , but he missed the bulk of the season ; he was injured most of January and February .”
Also not back are graduated senior contributors Ayden Simms , Cade Kincaid and Aden Isaacs , the latter whom was injured last year and didn ’ t get to play .
Seniors Cody Harrell and Matt Light and junior point guard Eli Campbell are returning starters , and they will be expected to carry the load for Midland Trail .
“ Eli played a lot of point guard ,” Miller said . “ Last year he got a lot of experience . He ’ s ate up with basketball . He ’ s improved a lot . He ’ s been invited to all of these top 100 , top 200 prospect camps .
“ He ’ s going to be our goto guy this year . He ’ s put in work . Every week in the offseason he ’ s somewhere playing , so we expect him to have a big year .”
Harrell will fill a wing spot . “ Cody plays a lot of sports , so it ’ s not like he can devote all his time to basketball . It usually takes Cody until like February to get rolling , then it finally starts clicking for him . I don ’ t know if last year was a confidence thing for him or what , but once it started to click last year for him he ended up probably being one of our best players by the end of the year . He went from scoring like three points a game to the last seven or eight games , I think he was like at 16 to 18 ppg .
“ You can tell that ’ s carried over this year , even with football . His confidence level is just up . He ’ s playing really well right now . I expect him to have a big year , too .”
Harrell can also be used in the post occasionally , said Miller .
“ Matt Light has started since he was a freshman ,” the coach said . “ If you take away the Covid years and Matt snapping his arm his freshman year , he ’ s probably an easy 1,000-point scorer here .
“ Ever since he started , he ’ s been an 18 points a game player . He ’ s probably got the quickest first step I ’ ve ever seen in my life . That kid is quick . I look for him to have a big year , too . It will help that we ’ ve got people around him that can shoot .”
( Junior ) Jaden Gladwell transferred in ( from Meadow Bridge ). “ He ’ ll be a big help for us . He ’ s a really good basketball player . His dad was a coach , so he ’ s got the brain part of the game , too . That helps . Good ball handler , too . Last year we struggled a lot because Eli was really the only ball handler we had . When teams took him away , we struggled against pressure . This year we ’ ve got guys that can handle the ball so it doesn ’ t have to be all Eli .
“ Eli ’ s a natural point guard that can score . I can move Jaden some to point , too , and Eli can go offball .”
Senior T . C . Perry is “ really the only size we have , so he ’ ll be anchoring the middle ,” Miller noted .
Off the bench , junior Justin Cooper should make big contributions , Miller said . “ Nobody knows about Justin Cooper . He ’ s probably the most athletic person on this team . Dude can jump out of the gym , and he can shoot . He ’ s put a lot of time in this offseason , too . I think people are going to be shocked to find out how good that kid really is .”
Landon Syner , who had a good football season for the Patriots , will also be in the mix . “ He ’ s an athlete , too . He ’ ll play a lot of varsity minutes .”
“ Solid role players ” David Moore and Jackson Young will round out the primary rotation . “ I ’ d say we ’ re a solid eight-deep right now .”