| By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Doyle Hupp is looking for a leader. Tim Moore is looking for another 'Davis.'
Mike Stump is merely reloading.
That's the scenario as the winter sports season gets under way at Calhoun
High School and Calhoun Middle School.
The middle school teams have already played with both the boys and girls
teams suffering a pair of losses and the wrestling team playing host to an
invitational tournament.
The high school's teams start play tonight.
Hupp's Lady Red Devils open the season at home against Wahama at 7:15
tonight (ironically the game will be at the same time as the Middle School
girls game with Walton).
Wahama comes into the game fresh off a win over Buffalo in which they held
the Lady Bisons to 18 points.
Last year the White Falcons beat Calhoun.
While Hupp has several starters back including Angela King, Courtney McKown
and Dani Church. The problem is that the Red Devils have no point guard.<
Hupp's daughter Katie graduated from the point guard spot and her backup,
Kasey Westfall, chose not to play basketball this year.
This leaves Hupp scrambling to find a leader.
"We got players now we have to get someone to get the ball to them," he
said.
Over on the boys' side things will be difference since there is no Davis
affiliated with the program.
Longtime head coach Tim Davis resigned after leading the Red Devils to the
state tournament for the first time in school history last year.
His
departure, although he is still the athletic director, marks the end of a
nearly three-decade affiliation with the basketball team as either the coach
or as a player.
But he probably won't be the most missed Davis. That honor would fall to his
son Marcus, a three-time first-team all-state player.
Davis, the elder, was replaced by Moore as the Red Devils' head basketball
coach and Moore is using much of the same philosophy that he predecessor
did.
In other words the Devils play in-you-face full court defense and run an
offense that features a whole lot of three-point shots.
And there is where they will miss Davis, the younger, the most. Marcus Davis
was a deadly three-point shooter. No one on this year's team has shown quite
the same killer instinct, or three-point aplomb, as Davis.
But with a team that includes players such as Jake Perkins, Tristan Harris,
Michael Batten, Chad Conley and Tommy Gerwig the Devils should be able to
light it up offensively.
The big need is for one of those guys, or someone
off the bench, to grab the leadership mantle that Marcus Davis carried for
three years.
The search gets under way in earnest next Tuesday night when the Red Devils
open the season at Roane County.
As for wrestling, well, the Red Devils just reload.
Last year Calhoun finished third in the state and a finish somewhere in that
range this year would not be out of the question.
Oh, sure, Calhoun did lose probably the best wrestler in school history when
three-time state champion Justin Ashley graduated and you don't replace a
guy who lost two matches in three years of wrestling.
But this year the Red Devils have wrestlers in all weight classes, which is
something that Stump has not had in the past few seasons.
Calhoun also has back a passel of state tournament wrestlers including
Andrew Cummings, Paul Goodrich, Justin Ramsey, Jaron Sampson, Eddie Burrows
and Justin Price.
Still this is a young team in many ways as indicated by a
couple of freshmen - Caleb Hart and Zack Yeager - in the starting lineup.
The Red Devils, who are ranked fourth in the preseason AA-A poll, open the
season Saturday in the Ritchie County Duals.
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