Pirate Basketball Gets Ready For Upcoming Season

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Boys Basketball program has officially announced the varsity team roster for this season. Head Coach Kevin Walker said he has high expectations of the team.

“Our team looks good and we now have a lot of athletes joining us late due to football,” said Walker. “We are getting a little late start because of that, but luckily we have had some really good off-season playing experience to help.”

The team had over 30 athletes try out. “We slimmed down our roster, due to the new option that we can now play our athletes two games in one day,” said Walker.
This new rule by NIAA was put into play 2 years ago.
“It will help us be able to get our younger players more experience and build up their in-game skills,” said Walker.

Last year there was no basketball season due to COVID-19. Because of that, Peyton Nielson is the only returning player from the 2019 full season. He, along with Dustin Gordon, will assume Team Captains’ duties.

Other seniors on the team include Ben Jolley, Austin Heiselbetz, Cole Neilson, Sam Wheeler and Eli Cox.
Juniors playing on the team will be Joe Whitmore and Jayden Bunker.

Underclassmen on the team will include sophomores Mason Wheeler and Heath Bylund ; as well as freshmen Bryson Walker and John Lyman.
“We have a lot of upside!” Walker said. “We are fast and we press really well. We defend really well, too.”

Walker expects the main competition for Moapa Valley in the league will be Virgin Valley. Boulder City will offer a challenge in the opposite league. And in the north, Elko is the formidable team, Walker said.
“We saw all of our competition during the summer when we played in the Meadows Summer League in June,” said Walker. “They all look good, however Elko is a really good program. They play year-round and travel even as far as Florida to play.”

Even so, Walker said he places lots of faith in his team.
“We will be doing a lot of full court press and trapping with goals to get better throughout the season,” Walker said. “We know we can be competitive for Division and State.”
This year the Pirates will be hosting Divisional Play.

The Pirates started off their season on Tuesday, November 30 hosting Enterprise. Their first tournament starts Thursday as they play at the Lake Mead Holiday Classic at 12:30 pm and then at 6:30 pm. The location is at Lake Mead Christian Academy in Henderson.