Season Preview

The Daily Herald published their high school basketball season preview of the Lone Peak basketball team on Tuesday, December 8. I was pleasantly surprised to open my paper to see a photo of Tannon (included in this post, photo by Beky Beaton) and then read some nice comments about him from our coach.

Here is a link to the article in the paper: http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/high-school/basketball/article_cc5159e8-6178-5deb-bd89-e958d9946de6.html. I have also cut and pasted the article below. Go KNIGHTS! We have played one game already and won (vs. Salem Hills High School). Tannon had 19 points. I hope he can play that well tomorrow night in our next game agains Viewmonth High School. He has been on death's doorstep with the flu the past 24 hours but his fever broke a couple of hours ago. Whew! He might live to play another game.

Before you read on, I have a thought. Scary, I know. But go with me. As I look at this photo, the thought occurs to me that maybe boys should shave their underarms. No, really! Is there ANYTHING attractive about sweaty, hairy underarms? We, the women of America, shave ours! So I vote boys should do the same. Just a thought. Enough about that. On to basketball, which is the real reason for this post...

LP Boy Preview: Youthful Knight Boys a Work in Progress
By: Beky Beaton

The question everybody wants to ask Lone Peak boys basketball coach Quincy Lewis this season is how he's planning to replace six seniors, including two-time Mr. Basketball Tyler Haws.

His quick answer? "I won't -- at least, not right away."

The coach explained, "We lost a really good core group of guys that we brought all the way through the program. They went to the state title game three years in a row and won twice.

"I like the talent level of my new team, but it's going to take some time with our youth and inexperience to come around," he added. "We've got a lot of work to do."

The only returning player with substantial varsity experience is 6-foot-3 senior wing Tannon Pedersen, who came back to the hoops squad fresh off an All-State season as a quarterback for the football team.

"He was a major contributor last year on a very good team," Lewis said. "He has the ability to shoot the ball with range and is getting better and better at getting to the basket."

Next on the list is a name that many will never have heard before: 6-7 junior center Jordan Hamilton.

"He was hurt all of last year," Lewis said.

"We got him back in the spring and he's made excellent progress since that time. He has very good hands and can get up and down the floor."

A player who earned some varsity minutes last year as a freshman is 6-1 sophomore guard Brody Berry.

"He gets his hands on things and is very disruptive defensively," Lewis said.

Christian Childs, a 6-7 senior forward, "brings some size and has worked very hard to improve his game in the offseason," the coach said.

Three other seniors expected to contribute and bring leadership to the team are 6-0 guard Scott Schwarz and 6-3 forwards Ben Seipert and Brady Berry.

Lewis also has a couple of talented freshmen in 6-1 point guard Nick Emery and 6-2 wing Tallon Shumway.

"These two could have a real impact on varsity this season," the coach said."The big question for me is, how quickly can we develop guys without much varsity experience?

"I've kind of thought with our system defensively, it's always taken kids a couple of years to figure out what they're doing with it," he went on. "We had the spring and summer to get a head start on it, but we still have a long way to go."