Basketball team prepares
for challenges
The past two years our North Lake basketball
guys have tied with Richland for the Metro Athletic
Conference Championship. As a result our opponents
will be highly motivated when it’s their
turn to play us. Three-hour practices have become
commonplace as we prepare for the challenge ahead.
Having six sophomores returning from last year’s
team along with four transfers who previously
played college basketball means that we are an
experienced team. After being a junior college
coach for 12 years, I have learned the enormous
value of having experienced players, so I am optimistic
that if we can improve our teamwork we can have
a great team.
In keeping with our tradition of playing a tough
non-conference schedule, we are playing in three
out-of-state tournaments. We open our season Nov.
3-5 at Hobbs, N.M., where we play New Mexico Junior
College, New Mexico Military Institute, and Arizona
Western College. Two weeks later we play at the
Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. There
will be teams from Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska,
and Montana in that tournament.
In January, we travel to Missouri to play Southwest
Missouri-West Plains College, Kirkwood College
from Iowa, and Northwest Mississippi Community
College.
We play our first home game on Tuesday, Nov.
8, at 4 p.m. against Shorter College. Another
home game of interest is on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.,
when we host the champion from Mexico’s
University Division National Tournament. Annually,
the winner of the tournament is rewarded with
a trip to Dallas to watch the Mavericks and play
us.
As an update on last year’s players, Kenneth
Cage is playing for Tarleton State University,
which is the NCAA Div. II, pre-season No. 1 ranked
team.
Aaron Smith is playing for Northern Kentucky;
Bassey Ekong is playing for Mesa State in Colorado;
Rajshad Anderson is playing for Adams State in
Colorado, and Len Medcafe is playing for the University
of Texas at Tyler.
Our games promise always to be exciting, and
our newly renovated gym looks super. There is
no admission charge so bring your friends and
family and cheer for the Blazers to continue their
winning ways.
— Tim McGraw is the head basketball
coach at North Lake.
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