Dogies look to change things up

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Dogie fans will see a bit of a change in Allen Von Eye’s varsity basketball squad this season as personnel has dictated a necessity for it. After several years of suiting a guard-heavy team, the Dogies have a few more bigs on the roster, and as such, Von Eye is working on adjusting the former run-and-gun game plan to one which will utilize size to their advantage.
“Having the bigs becomes more of a challenge defensively, so we will probably be running more zone than in the past because we can’t have them chasing guys. We want to try to keep them more in the paint to seal off the inside,” he explained. “We’ll still be motion based on offense, but will do more four out, or three out with dual posts.”
After graduating four seniors from last year’s roster, Von Eye is returning only two from his starting squad in senior Avery Chick and junior Tate Engle. Chick came on for the Dogies in the second half of the season, while Engle occupied a starting position throughout the year. 
Joining these two include senior Slade Roberson, who sat out last season due to an ACL injury suffered in the first football game of the year. Junior Hogan Tystad will play a much larger role than he did last season and will be working with Roberson on the inside in one of the post positions. 
“Hogan came on for us really well in the last couple weeks of the season last year, and has really picked up right where he left off, so that’s great,” Von Eye said. “I’ve been really impressed with him so far, and he and Slade are playing really well in the post positions so I’m excited to see what they can do for us.”
Other returning varsity players include seniors Aidan Chick and Hayden Overman, who came off the bench for the Dogies last season. Chick suffered a broken collar bone which sidelined him in the middle of the year, so each of them are coming back with limited experience. 
“They did a good job for us, but there may be some growing pains,” Von Eye chuckled. “They need to be ready to jump in, and they are working hard so I’m confident they will get there quickly.”
Seniors Braden Jenkins, Neil Whitney and junior Tell Tavegie (after Christmas) provide the size for the team, while junior Quint Perino will be another guard for the squad.
In addition to the 10 varsity players, 14 others will fill the roster for the freshman and junior varsity squads. 
As per usual, the conference outlook is another challenging one this year. Von Eye predicted that Rawlins would begin as a frontrunner with a talented Douglas squad up there as well. He anticipates that Buffalo will be a typical athletic team that is well coached, and Torrington may be a surprise this season with a new coach who is giving them a different look. He continued by saying that Wheatland will be in the mix like they generally are, Thermopolis also returns their best players and Burns also has players returning which will make them competitive as well.
“The conference will be tough as usual, and that’s what I like about playing in the 3A Conference,” Von Eye said. “We will be prepped by the time the regional tournament comes around. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so we are focusing on improving constantly throughout the year so we are playing our best basketball by the end of February.” 
The Dogies will be able to test the waters this weekend as they tip off their season at the Burns Invitational on Friday and Saturday. 
“We’re excited to see how things go when we get on the court, and this weekend will give us a great look at several different defensive sets,” Von Eye began. “We will kick things off with an incredibly good basketball team in Pine Bluffs. They return everyone from last season and they were good then. They are also big and play basketball pretty much year round, and though it will be a rough one to start with it will be a nice test for us right out of the gate.”
Newcastle will face off against 2A Pine Bluffs on Friday at 5:30, then will play 1A Southeast and 3A Burns on Saturday.