It’s virtually new faces across the board for the Madill Wildcats entering a new boys’ basketball campaign with an entirely new starting five as well as new head coach.
William Bencoma has taken over the coaching reins and will look to the Wildcats’ athleticism and depth to make some waves once againinClass4A,wherethey advanced to the area round of the playoffs a season ago.
Madill opens the season at home Tuesday against Whitesboro, Texas with the Annual Madill Winter Classic to follow later in the week. “I’m excited to be here and it’s been an adjustment for everyone,” Bencoma commented. “With no returning starters it’s a fresh slate to workwithandwe’vegotsome good talent. They are still working on adjusting to my style of play and it’s probably going to be a work in progress as we go along. We’ll learn a lot once we start playing games. I’m confident though that our guys will respond in a way that’s going to help us get better. Most of these guys have patiently been waiting for their opportunity and now they are going to try and make the best of it.”
While no starting experience returns, Madill does haveahandfulofplayersthat did receive some varsity minutes while playing most of the time on the junior varsity.
Senior Gilberto Grimaldo was the squad’s sixth man a season ago and will be counted on heavily along with fellow senior Uziel Flore and juniors Cash Cooper and JaggerRogers.Grimaldoand Rogers have the best size on the squad checking in at 6-foot-4.
Bencoma also pointed to 6-3 sophomore Ryan Anderson andjuniorSammyDuran as expected key contributors to start the season after strong preseason camps.
“Anderson and Duran didn’t get any varsity time last year, but they have been making plays when it’s their opportunity,” the Madill coach said. “They have kind of separated themselves and are understanding the new offense and defense. We’re going to count on them along with the four guys that saw action last season.
“Althoughthosehavekind of separated themselves, we’ve got a good group on the bench that we can throw at people. I think that depth will be one of our strengths. We may have eight to 10 guys capable of playing that will allow us to stay fresh and force pressure. I feel like if we can stay fresh that will help us avoid silly turnovers and get worn down.”
The coach’s new style will be a pressure attack that will rely on defense and a relentless effort while trying to play as fast as possible.
Finding a go-to guy offensively is a question mark that the Wildcats will look to answer early in the season.
“We want to continue to apply pressure all game long and to play that hard the whole game, we are going to needtohavesomeguysoffthe bench,” Bencoma added. “It’s going to be kind of exciting to see who steps up as our go-to guyorguysoffensively.We’ve got a plan and idea but it remains to be seen how they respond once we get out there in an actual varsity game. Most of these guys have been successful at the JV level, which should provide them some confidence going into it.
“We’re going to try and put a lot of pressure on opponents all over the court. That’s how we’ll start out and do everything we can to play that way, but we’ll do what best fits our guys. We’ll have some big tests against high level competition. You can’t behesitanttoplayanybodyso in the long run when the 4A playoffs roll around it won’t be anything that we aren’t used to.”