Varsity squad preps for '11-'12 basketball season

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Mountain Home Tigers open their 2011-12 boys basketball season next week with games against 5A teams Rocky Mountain and Mountain View.

Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot said he was pleased with the numbers they had out for boys basketball tryouts.

"I think we had something like 44-45 kids that came out. We had to make some cuts to get our teams down to 11-12 size to make it feasible so we can make a productive season for everybody, so I was real happy with the turnout."

The Tigers are coming off a 9-14 season, and Coach Kerfoot says they will be one of the smallest teams in the conference this year.

"We're going to be small. Hopefully we're quick and we can shoot the ball well. I think we're going to have to maintain a high pace, and I think we can be very fun and exciting to watch. As much as anything, I think we have real good kids, and I think their character's good, and that's a good place to start from right there. They're a bunch of kids I'm going to enjoy coaching."

Kerfoot sees the 4A SIC to be very tough this year.

"I think we're in a very tough conference. Everybody looks like they've got some size -- we don't -- and it's going to be continual, how can we combat the size thing.

"Hopefully, we can do it with putting some full court pressure on, utilizing our quickness and our shooting ability, and hey, if the shots drop, I think we can knock down anybody in the league, but if they're not dropping, we could be in trouble, and there's going to be nights where its both.

"There'll be some times where I think we'll hit our shots, and then there's going to be some nights where we're going to have a hard time getting it to go in the hole, and those are going to be rough ones, but hopefully we can live through that and enjoy some good ones."

The Tigers will open their season at home against Rocky Mountain next Tuesday (Nov. 29).

"We start right away with the 5As and Rocky Mountain coming in here, they're basically starting a new program, so that will kind of be an unknown quantity until that day of what they have and who they're going to be.

"Their former coach from the last couple years took a job in California, and this year they're coming out with a kid that played for my brother (Dennis Kerfoot at Eagle) who is now stepping up to be the head coach, and my nephew is the assistant coach, so there will be a little incentive to be at full pace on that game.