The Paris News

Signs of transition are still evident for the Paris Junior College Dragons and Lady Dragons basketball teams.

For example, unpacked boxes still take up quite a bit of space in PJC men’s basketball coach Tom Schuberth’s office.

Schuberth is still doing research to determine what his players will eat during their pre-game meals.

PJC women’s basketball coach Sean LeBeauf has tried to skew the learning club of his team, which consists of only three sophomores, in early scrimmages and practices.

The past three months have been a whirlwind for Schuberth and LeBeauf, but the first-year PJC Dragon and Lady Dragon head coaches will unveil their squads this week at the Hunt Center on the campus of PJC.

The Dragons begin their season at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when they host Eastern Oklahoma State College. The Lady Dragons are scheduled to host Arkansas Baptist College at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in their season lid-lifter.

Both coaches took over their respective positions in early July. Schuberth accepted the position vacated by Ross Hodge, who guided the Dragons to an 82-18 record in three seasons at PJC before leaving to accept the open head coaching position at Midland College. LeBeauf was named the skipper of the Lady Dragons, who were led by Kris Wood for the past two seasons.

Tempering expectations

Schuberth enters this season with 24 players on his squad, but he will have his active roster trimmed to 15 or less before Tuesday’s season opener.

That roster consists of a balance of sophomores and freshmen, but only guard Demarkus Wilson and forwards Desmond King and Latay Darden return from this past season’s team that advanced to the Region XIV Tournament championship game.

The rest of the sophomore players transferred to PJC from various colleges.

Schuberth said it was important to have the transfer players in the program because of the experience they can bring this season.

“We were half and half with transfers and high school students, which I think is a good nucleus as long as you’re getting transfers for the right reasons,” said Schuberth, who was the head coach at the University of Texas-Pan American a season ago. “I think they definitely bring some different ideas, energy and spirit that is needed. I don’t think at any level you want to go in with all new players to the college level, especially taking over a program that has been super successful over the last six years like this one has.”

He still hasn’t determined which five players will start in the first game of the season, but he noted the play of sophomores Darden, forward Justynn Hammond and guard Calvin Brown throughout the preseason practices. He also said he likes the parity throughout the team and said the team won’t be forced to rely on any one player because of the balance on the squad.

The Dragons were tabbed as the No. 5 team in the Region XIV North Zone, which Schuberth finds hard to disagree with given the strength of the conference this season.

“I don’t want to undersell this team, but I also don’t want them to think that it’s going to be easy because this league is really good,” he said. “In fact, I think it’s as good as it’s ever been…I don’t know that there’s one dominant team, but you have to look at Navarro, Tyler, Trinity Valley and Lon Morris are the top teams in my opinion.

“I would love to say that we are in that category, but I don’t think we are. I think we’ll get better as the year progresses and hopefully we can be very competitive with those teams before the season ends.”

Working hard

Experience is virtually non-existent for the Lady Dragons.

Sophomores Taylor Ammons and Randi White are the only returning players from the PJC squad of one season ago. The only other sophomore is Meoshi Bradley, who transferred to the college from the University of Tulsa.

LeBeauf said his goal for this season is to instill positive work ethic into the players.

“They’re improving and they’re working hard,” he said. “It’s just not always at the intensity that I expect. That’s me having to teach them the intensity level they need to be at every day to be successful. Champions don’t take a day off and that’s what I’m trying to teach them.

“I’m trying to develop a winning culture. I just want them to go into every game from the effort they put forth in practice believing that they have a chance to win each and every night they step on the floor.”

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