Grizzlies working on own identity
By Gary Fauber the register-herald
Nicholas County finished last season with a 10-13 record , which included a first-round sectional loss to Sissonville .
Not exactly one to remember . It is , however , somewhat misleading , considering the Grizzlies started the season 1-9 .
They then did an aboutface by winning nine of their next 10 games to even their record .
“ The kids were playing well ,” coach Brian Phipps said . “ We were getting to the free throw line a bunch and we were making shots . We were defending better . Then we had a game in the sectional where we didn ’ t make any shots and we didn ’ t get to the free throw line and ended up losing that one . But all in all it was a successful year for us .”
The Grizzlies lost their final three games after that stretch , but that takes nothing away from how well they played .
It isn ’ t something , however , that Phipps believes the current team can build on . The Grizzlies lose only three seniors from 2021- 22 , but the team is establishing itself as unique .
“ I really don ’ t know about that ,” he said . “ This team has kind of taken their own identity . They ’ re kind of doing their own thing , which is neat to watch them .
“ They ’ re doing things that we ’ ve tried to get our teams to do in the past .
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Tina Laney / For The Register-Herald
Colby Pishner ( 0 ) has graduated and is now playing at WVU Tech , but Ethan Collins ( 5 ) is one of the players Nicholas County coach Brian Phipps is counting on to help the team this season .
They ’ re actually hanging their hat on the standards that we ’ ve had in the past , like talking on defense . These guys are actually talking on defense , way better than any team I ’ ve ever had . Our first week was probably the best first week of practice I ’ ve had in my 13 years .”
The three seniors were Colby Pishner , Travis Smith and Bryson Phipps . Pishner was a Class AAA second-team all-stater who averaged 24.9 points , 6.4 rebounds , 3.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game , all team-highs . He also made 208 of 286 free throws ( 72.7 percent ), the 208 leading the state ( and 11th in the nation ) according to MaxPreps .
“ It ’ s hard to replace what he did ,” Phipps said of Pishner , now a freshman at WVU Tech . “ He was the state ’ s leading free throw shooter , he did lots of things offensively and started to get the hang of it defensively . When you lose that guy , you ’ re losing some things offensively for sure , but hopefully we can make up for that with three or four different players .”
Phipps is confident in the players he has toward doing just that .
Junior Bryar Bailes returns to handle one of the guard positions .
“ He actually has improved his game tremendously over the spring and summer and the fall ,” Phipps said . “ He ’ s gotten stronger , faster . Jumps higher , shoots it better .”
Sophomore Ethan Collins will also play on the perimeter .
“ Ethan Collins is another player that played all spring , summer and fall ,” Phipps said . “ He ’ s improved as well . He ’ ll be in that mix as well .”
Senior Austin Altizer brings size to the team .
“ He ’ s our post player . He ’ s our biggest kid at 6-4 ( 250 pounds ),” Phipps said . “ Football really helped him . He was one of our guards and it helped his feet tremendously . He ’ s able to do some things around the basket that he hadn ’ t been able to do in the past , which is good .”
Sophomore Trey Stump is another guard Phipps says has improved .
“ Really coming along , shoots the ball really well ,” Phipps said . “ His defensive physicality has been really good and has improved tremendously from last year as a freshman . He ’ s grown some as well and he ’ s going to help us out there .”
The fifth spot would come down to either senior guard Gage Groggs or junior guard-forward Jaxson Morriston .
“ I ’ m a big proponent of , who starts the game really doesn ’ t affect me . It ’ s who finishes the game ,” Phipps said . “ And it depends on the night which one of those guys finishes the game because there may be a night where , matchup wise , we don ’ t need a big 6-4 post player . We ’ re going to need an extra guard on the floor .”
Off the bench will be junior guard Cole Brown , who moved up from the JV team in the latter part of last season and played well ; junior guard Landon Hanna ; senior guard Brycen Morriston , who will be assigned the opponent ’ s best player on defense ; and sophomore post Isaiah Miner .
“ I ’ ve never seen a kid jump like jumps ,” Phipps said . “ He ’ s probably going to set our school record soon in the high jump , and probably the long jump .”
The Grizzlies will be playing in a bit of a newlook section . With Westside moving to Class AA , Midland Trail has gone from Section 2 to take the Renegades ’ spot in Section 1 . Lewis County is now in Section 2 , replacing Trail .
The Minutemen have been added to the Grizzlies ’ regular season schedule as new sectional foes .
Email : gfauber @ register-herald . com ; follow on
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