Woodland hoops wrap up summer of adjustment to being 'smaller'

Woodland High School junior guard Calvin Layton pushes the ball up the court in a recent scrimmage against Bell City at Delta High School.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The Woodland High School varsity boy’s basketball squad wrapped up its summer training recently in a harried fashion.

The Cardinals ventured to Branson for the Tri-Lakes Shootout and played 14 games in three days. That followed a summer of games in the Rib City Shootouts and a series of scrimmages at Delta High School against various programs, all of which could give third-year Cardinal Coach Shawn Kinder an idea of how his revamped roster will fare this coming winter.

“The biggest component (to this team) is that we are going to be small,” Kinder said.

The Cardinals won 21 games for the second consecutive season last year but graduated five seniors in Reed Layton, Brayden Hastings, Colby Miller, Trae Cook, and Ellias Nenninger.

Woodland returns seven varsity players, all of whom will be asked to rebound the basketball.

“With our schedule,” Kinder continued, “we’re really going to have to control the glass and really focus on rebounding.

“We’re not very big this year. We don’t have that superior athlete. Everybody is going to have to pitch in (on the glass) and help out.”

Well, Woodland DOES have athletes, who can do other things, like push the basketball offensively.

Junior guard Korbin Kinder returns in a scoring and ball-handling role, and he’ll be joined by seniors Lane Lee, Drew Tarble, and Bryer Sauls, as well as juniors Calvin Layton and Kameron McCormick.

“The kids share the ball really well,” Kinder said, “and they do a good job of putting it in the basket, at times. We are going to try and speed up the game as much as we can.”

The Cardinals averaged nearly 78 points per game last season, which was the most in the lifetimes of the young Cardinal athletes.

Woodland scored 216 points in their first two games last winter and pushed the tempo for the rest of their schedule.

“These kids have played together a long time,” Kinder said. “Hopefully, they make good decisions in transition. Even though you play fast in transition, you still have to make good decisions.

“I feel like the kids that we’ve got, they have been in this system long enough and have been around long enough, they know my expectations. They know between a good shot and a bad shot. If we’re not in rhythm, they are able to pull it out and run something.”

The Cardinals closed last season on an eight-game win streak before falling to a 22-win Scott City team in the opening game of the MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 Tournament.

The summer training schedule for Missouri high school athletes concludes on Friday with a "dead week" period next week.

The start of the official fall sports season opens Monday, August 12.