By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  As they wrapped up their second day of practice, the Stayton Boys Basketball team showed fire in the way they were pushing tempo as they remember how last year ended.

You could tell that the sting of the 67-48 loss on the road to Astoria were on their minds.  That the sour taste was still there after all of these months and Head Coach Joe Kiser is expecting his team to step up to the challenge explains Aidan Hill.

“It really gets us fired up to know we’re hungry, we’re ready to go and how we want that chance back,” he said.  “Coach’s are looking for us to be hungry, he wants to play hard…he wants us to have a sour taste in our mouths and we want more than what we got out of last year and it’s just our challenge.  His expectation of us is to show him what we got.”

Height will help them as Riley Nichol’s 6-foot-5 inch frame was noticeable out on the court along with a few big, tall bodies out there as the athletic ability of the Eagles that they had last year will help them this year.

“I’m pumped, I’m pumped,” said Nichol on the height.  “Fellow post Kaleb (Anundi), we got some height in the program and it’ll be fun.”

Nichol also adds that to use that height to it’s fullest advantage, it starts from the guards from the outside to get it rolling.

And though it’s just the end of Day two, a lot has happen in the two practices to this point and it’s really exciting to see said Hill.

“It’s exciting, we got some guys starting to mature, we got size,” Hill started.  “We got speed, we got younger guys coming up, really stepping up and making their presence known.  They want to get in, they want to play.  They want to get into it, they want playing time so it’s exciting to know that we’re all hungry and we all want the same goal and it’s really fun going in.”