Coach appreciates early efforts

After last summer, Lakeland High boys basketball coach Trent Derrick was brimming with optimism.

His players were coming off one of the best summers in recent memory. And his 2008-09 team was largely set with nine returning lettermen including four returning starters.

That was before his top returning starter, junior Joel Underdahl, suffered a torn acruciate ligament in football. Underdahl had surgery in early October, meaning he will miss the basketball season.

“There’s no sense bemoaning it because we’ve known for a while that we aren’t going to have Joel,” Derrick said.

Derrick had to stop himself in midsentence a couple of times when he talked about his team’s potential this season. He hasn’t fully accepted the fact that Underdahl, a 6-foot guard who led the Hawks in scoring last year at 14.5 points per game, won’t be available this season. He’s thankful Underdahl will be able to rehabilitate his knee in time to play next year.

What it means in the present, though, is a couple of Hawks (8-15 overall last year) will see more playing time and others will have to step up to fill the scoring void.

The other three returning starters are senior wing/post Austin Black (6-foot-2), junior guard Caleb Guerber (5-11) and senior post Cody Moreland (6-7). The other returning lettermen are sophomore guard Kyle English (5-10), senior wing John Novak (5-11), senior post Brady Schweikert (6-2) and senior post Jason Mobeck (6-3), who filled a role as a part-time starter last year.

Derrick also sees first-year varsity player Brett Davis (6-2), a wing/post, filling a big role.

Lakeland is playing without a second returning starter. Moreland suffered a hip flexor and groin injury the first day of tryouts and will be out until Christmas. Moreland was the Hawks’ second leading scorer (9.7) and top rebounder (7.0) last year.

The good news is a number of the returners received more playing time last year than previously planned after three senior starters were kicked off the team in December for athletic code violations.

English, Guerber, Novak, Schweikert, Mobeck and Black are sharing starting positions at the moment. When Moreland returns, Derrick will have essentially seven starters.

“We’ll have some options,” Derrick said. “We have some players who are interchangeable.”

Derrick says he has the thinnest bench in his 13 years as Lakeland’s coach.

“Ideally I’d like to have about 10 players to work with,” Derrick said.

Derrick appreciates the early efforts by his players.

“Offensively we execute the stuff we have in right now as well as any team I’ve had,” Derrick said. “They understand the concepts of the things we’re doing.”

Without Moreland, though, the Hawks are undersized, especially inside. They’ve struggled rebounding in their first two games.

“That’s where we have to get a lot better,” Derrick said. “We have to limit teams’ possessions and can’t give them second chances.”

Lakeland dropped out of the Inland Empire League this year, and the Hawks will play a schedule that should allow them to secure a few more wins and build some confidence as the season progresses. Derrick believes it will allow his players to put themselves in a position to compete with the region’s other two 4A teams, Sandpoint and Moscow.

“We need to look at how we finish, not how we start,” Derrick said. “I see no reason why we can’t compete with Moscow and Sandpoint.”

Derrick sees Sandpoint as a slight favorite.

“They’re probably a little deeper and experienced than us and Moscow,” Derrick said. “In spite of all the obstacles we’ve had, I see us competing for a state berth.”

Lakeland is seeking its first state berth since 2003-04.

Timberlake

It’s not a cliché to say the Tigers (0-21, 0-8 in Intermountain League) have nowhere to go but up because they couldn’t have fallen any further than they did last year.

The Tigers didn’t have to wait long to snap a 23-game losing streak that dated back to the end of the 2006-07 season. Timberlake opened last Friday with a win over Clark Fork.

“I didn’t know how much it had been weighing on us until (last week),” second-year Timberlake coach Jim Simpson said of the losing streak.

The Tigers are much more experienced this year than the team Simpson inherited a year ago. Timberlake returns four lettermen. They are senior guard Patrick Lagrimanta (5-11), senior post Ammon Johnston (5-11), senior forward Brian Maldonado (6-1) and junior guard Derek Tymesen (5-11). Lagrimanta and Tymesen are returning starters.

Other players who are expected to fill important roles are junior forward Derek Puckett (6-2), junior post Travis Porter (6-2), junior post Matthew Kriz (6-1), junior post Andrew McClean (6-3) and sophomore guard Cooper Simpson (6-0).

“I feel like I have seven kids who can start,” Simpson said.

The Tigers’ glaring liability is a lack of size.

“We have a whole bunch of 6-1 guys,” Simpson said. “We have a very athletic team. We’re still trying to make them into basketball players. We just need experience.”

St. Maries is considered the favorite to win the IML title. Priest River could challenge St. Maries, but after that the league appears wide open.

“My hope is by the end of the year we’ll get to the point where we’re competitive with some of the (IML) schools,” Simpson said. “I’m pretty optimistic about what’s ahead here.”