SAND ROCK – Sand Rock girls basketball coach Lisa Bates can only remember a couple of years in her coaching career where she’s had a senior-heavy squad.

She’ll have another one for the 2021-22 season.

Six seniors help comprise Sand Rock’s roster this season, including the return of point guard Caley Garrett. Garrett missed much of last season with a right knee injury that required surgery.

“She’s back as strong as ever, as far as getting up and down the floor, making moves. She’s doing really well,” Bates said. “She has such a heart for it that I hope she does really well this year.”

Complementing Garrett is senior shooting guard and Faulkner commitment Lanie Henderson. Henderson averaged 14.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.2 assists for the Lady Wildcats (16-13) last season.

“We’re looking for big things out of her,” Bates said of Henderson. “She’s a shooter who’s improved her driving, and we’re excited about that.”

Other senior guards in the Lady Wildcats’ arsenal are McKenna Ballenger and Haley Grace Lisenbee. Senior Arleigh Beard will play inside the post, along with senior center Emilee Burton.

“We expect McKenna to give us some really good minutes this year and carry over her spunkiness from volleyball to basketball. We expect her to be a good defender for us as well,” Bates said. “I feel like I’ve had Haley Grace forever. She can pass really well. I would’ve liked to have been on her team (as a player) because she can get it the post player the ball, and I love that. We’re expecting a lot from Arleigh. She’s a jumper, a rebounder. She’s got a lot of spunk to her. Emilee doesn’t have a lot of experience but she can shoot well, so she’s also going to be playing the post for us.”

The rest of the Lady Wildcat roster is comprised of sophomore guard Katelyn StClair, the Stephens sisters, junior Jacey and sophomore Chloe, sophomore center Kennedy Henderson, sophomore forward Zoey Handy, and junior forward/center Lily Middlebrooks.

“We’re ready to play now,” Bates said. “We’ve had some fun practices. If we can keep everybody healthy this year, we should have some good combinations. I feel like we’ve got some girls who have really improved who are going to surprise some people. I feel like we’re going to be deeper this year where I can play a few more people than normal. I’m very excited about that. I feel like the young ones have really worked to earn that. I feel like there’s a more even mixture in practice. We’re really pushing each other hard. It’s going to be fun.”

On the boys side, the Wildcats are suffering through what the Lady Wildcats dealt with last year, and that’s injuries.

Head coach John Blackwell lost a pair of players to football injuries. A total of five aren’t playing right now because of the injury bug.

The Wildcats – who went 24-6 last season and played in the Class 2A Northeast Regional final – also lost two of their top players in Cade Ballenger and Garyn Sharpe, along with four other seniors to graduation. They are in a recovery mode, so-to-speak, but that’s not to say Sand Rock isn’t talented. They played their first game of the season on Nov. 9 at Brindlee Mountain and came away with a 67-62 victory.

“The guys we have now, they play hard. I think once we get a little basketball conditioning in us, I think we’ll be a pretty good basketball team,” Blackwell said.

In the Brindlee Mountain game, junior guard Jacob StClair and junior forward Kaden Justice both picked up where they left off from last season. StClair led the Wildcats with 30 points, seven steals, five rebounds and four assists. Justice added 15 points, 12 boards and four assists.

“It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for somebody, even if you are playing a lot of football guys with no experience, when you return a guy tied as our leading scorer (StClair) and a guy that led us in rebounds (Justice),” Blackwell said. “What they’ve done the past couple of years on the varsity as ninth and 10th graders they did in leading our team (at Brindlee Mountain).”

Blackwell said he came away pleasingly surprised with some of the other Wildcats’ performances.

Junior forward Logan Crider and senior guard Gunner Cox also had solid nights. Crider contributed seven points and nine boards. Cox finished with six points and four steals.

“Gunner played on varsity last year, and he did so many little things (against Brindlee Mountain) the average person in the stands probably didn’t understand, like how he communicates our defense. The little things like that are exactly what we want out of Gunner, and it’s exactly what we got.

“Logan Crider and Bradley Jackson come in and played our two post positions. We got about 12 or 14 points out of that position, those two together. We got about 14 or 15 rebounds. I was real pleased with the rebounds.

“Bryan East has just come out of football. He’s our other senior. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to get from Bryan. We haven’t seen him in two months.

“Slade StClair was a B-teamer last year. He’s made the varsity this year and came in (against Brindlee Mountain) and had a few steals, three or four rebounds. He only took one shot, but he didn’t turn the ball over. He just plays real good defense. He’s athletically smart. He’s going to be a real solid for us this year.

“When you say Jacob Cornejo, you think running back, but he come in and really played well for us (at Brindlee Mountain). Brian Giles is another one who played. He’s got a pretty shot. He’s a pure shooter. If he can play turnover free, pull a few rebounds and defend for us, then he’s going to be able to help us also.

“Ben Dale played on varsity last year. He come off the bench and played some. He had a good game last night as well. He’s a very good athlete. He can run and jump, pull some rebounds. If he can play turnover-free and score a few points, that’ll help us.”

Even though a lot of the varsity faces have changed, the Wildcats’ goals are still the same.

“We’ve gone to Jacksonville back-to-back years. We’ve won back-to-back counties and back-to-back areas. That’s something our guys are proud of. It had been 54 years since that had been done,” Blackwell said. “I think they want to be successful.

“Our basketball guys are a whole lot like the Bible says. You do the things you’re supposed to as a Christian at home, then you work your way out. I think our guys set goals like that for our basketball program. We want to be good in Cherokee County. We want to win our area, then when you get to the big picture, we want to compete and play for a state championship. We just have to get enough guys to buy into that. So far I feel like we’re heading in the right direction.”

Both Sand Rock teams compete in Class 2A, Area 12 along with Spring Garden, Gaston and Westbrook Christian. They both play at Gadsden City on Tuesday evening.