December 28, 2021
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Yellow Jackets use tournament bonding, experience to build an identity to carry them through second half of season
HUNTSVILLE – There’s a reason the Oxford basketball team has been coming to the Huntsville City Classic all these years and it goes beyond just getting two or three extra games on the schedule.
Every year the Yellow Jackets come here, they come seeking an identity and looking to make a turn into the home stretch. It has traditionally been the place they have turned the corner for a strong second-half run that lands them in the tournament.
They moved in that direction again Monday when the Yellow Jackets shut down Buckhorn and its brilliant eighth-grader Caleb Holt, 47-37.
“This trip is put into the schedule for us to grow as a group and come together,” Jackets coach Joel VanMeter said. “I don’t think it’s my doing. I think I’ve just been very lucky the last three or four years that it’s worked out that way, and hopefully it’ll work out that way this year.
“This is kind of the turning point for every team. If you make that turn right now you’re going to have a chance to be pretty good. If you don’t make that turn right now, then it’s probably going to be a subpar year.”
Several years ago, VanMeter directly credited the bonding experience the Jackets had here as the springboard for their first Calhoun County Tournament title in a while. Two years ago, they came up here looking to find some leadership at the point. Kobe Warren blossomed in the semifinals against Mae Jemison and emerged as the final piece to their puzzle.
“They preach to you in basketball it’s a marathon, not a sprint, it’s a long journey,” senior Rylan Houck said. “When you’re halfway through the season, that’s when you’re body starts hurting and it’s really easy to tap-it, give out.
“In this tournament you want to go out there and shine, you want to go out there and be the best team, you want to prove what you can do, so it doesn’t let you off. You have to push over any mental block you face. It’s very easily a strong point in our season.”
This year, the Jackets (9-7) came in with an inexperienced group looking for some growth. They grew Monday in the sense that they found other answers when Houck struggled offensively.
Houck, the Jackets’ latest 1,000-point career scorer, was their top scorer in the game with 11 points, but he was just 3-of-14 from the field, 2-of-7 from behind the arc. [**read more]
**When you click read more you will be taken to the EA Sports Today website. Please make sure to come back to read more Calhoun County News.
Advertisement
