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Schools

MRH Hoops Ready For Another Big Season

Devils went 16-12 last season, before being knocked out of playoffs in district championship game.

With their eyes set firmly on their December 1 season opener in Jonesboro, AR, the boys basketball team has been hard at work prepping for the 2011-2012 hoops season.

Every day after school, and some days before school, the Blue Devils meet up with head coach Corey Frazier and an array of assistants, for some of the most intense preseason workouts of any team in the area.

“Yeah, we definitely put them to work,” said Frazier during a recent MRH workout. “But that’s what I love about this team. I don’t get any complaints. No frowns. No whining. No crying. These kids just work.”

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And it’s through that work that Frazier and the Blue Devils hope to add another state championship banner beside the ones from 2008 and 2009 that currently hang in the MRH gym.

Last season, a year that many thought would be a rebuilding season for MRH, ended with the Devils going 16-12, after taking a loss in the district championship game against .

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This season, Frazier believes his Devils are ready to make another run at the title.

“Last year, we weren’t ready, not really,” Frazier said. “But we really set the tone back in April.

“These kids gained so much experience. We went through so many things. We had a really good spring, a really good summer, and now there’s nothing these kids haven’t seen and won’t be ready for (this season). The expectations are, we expect to be better.”

This season’s MRH squad is made up of two seniors, seven juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen. And Frazier expects all of them to play and contribute.

Junior guard Khalid Hagens is the Devils’ top returning scorer this year, after averaging 11.3 points a game last year, but he hasn’t practiced with the basketball team yet this season. Until Saturday's , he had been quarterbacking the football Blue Devils.

Talented juniors Wes Williams, Aaron Collins, and Aaron Spudich, along with sophomore Cortland Brooks and freshman Reggie Gwynn, also were on the football team.

Players currently practicing with the team include seniors Chris DeBose and Jake Hensel, juniors Caleb Greenwalt and Corey Frazier, Jr., sophomore , and freshman Satchel McDonald.

MRH will also get a big addition for second semester, when 6-foot-6 junior Devontai Halfacre will be eligible to play after sitting out the first semester this season.

“I can’t wait til we get the big fella eligible,” Frazier said. “He’s got great hands. It doesn’t matter if a pass is high or low, or in a good spot or a bad spot, he’s going to catch it, and do something good with it once he has it.”

One major change for MRH this season, is the Devils will no longer compete in the season-opening, Thanksgiving weekend Borgia Tournament, as they had for so many years in the past.

Instead, MRH will wait until the week after Thanksgiving, and open up their season on December 1, at the prestigious Hurricane Classic Tournament at Jonesboro High School in Arkansas.

“I love the Borgia Tournament,” Frazier said. “We always enjoyed playing down there. But it just didn’t seem fair to the kids to play down there, with only half our team. So we’re just going to wait until football is completely over, then we’ll have our whole team and the really big tournament in Arkansas.”

MRH will also play in the Webster Groves and Poplar Bluff tournaments in December, before beginning defense of its South Central Athletic Association league title in January.

“We don’t care if it’s a conference game, or a tournament game, or a playoff game,” Frazier said. “We treat every game the same. We give every opponent the same respect. And we play every game the same way.”

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