A strong run at the end of last season earned Orangefield a much deserved playoff spot. Bobcat Coach Rea Wrinkle hopes that will carry over into this basketball season. Wrinkle thinks the excitement of making the postseason and a strong playoff game against Cleveland, that went to the regional quarterfinals before losing to West Orange-Stark, has given some experience to the kids coming back which led to a good summer program and hopefully carries over so the Bobcats can make the playoffs again. Coach Wrinkle has three players back from last season he counting on to lead this season’s Bobcats. Matthew and Caleb Kress both played varsity last season. Matthew will be a senior and will be one of the leaders for Orangefield. Wrinkle believes Kress will really have to step up at both ends of the floor, he was a defensive leader last season and helped with scoring as well, but that role is going to increase even more. His brother Caleb was a freshman last season and saw some limited minutes on the varsity. Caleb is expected to do big things this season taking on a lot more responsibilities on both offense and defense. Also, returning is Nick Harvey one of the Bobcats’ post men and a football player like Matthew and Caleb. Harvey should provide that solid force down low getting a bunch of rebounds and be solid in the post area defensively. Younger players need to step up for Orangefield early in the season according to Wrinkle. Junior Matthew Watkins, another football player, got called up to the varsity for the playoffs last season. Sophomore Wesley Frillou is going to step in at guard, and sophomore Payton Lathrop is going to see playing time. Coach Wrinkle plans to play only eight kids and has seniors Collin Burton and Dillon Taylor who the coach expects to provide some senior leadership in their first year on varsity. Not satisfied with making the playoffs last season, Coach Wrinkle wants a repeat post season appearance. As a coach, Wrinkle always has the outlook that the Bobcats will be the district champs, but knows how a district plays out can be a toss-up and where the team is at the end of the pre-district action can determine how it performs in district. Coach Wrinkle says the Bobcats’ goal is to make the playoffs, the district has lost Buna, but picked up LC-M which is twice as big as Orangefield which means the Bobcats are really going to have to be prepared in the pre-district to come together and play hard to be ready for the tough district run.
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