Head coach: Rod Drake (13th year)
2019-20 record: 21-11
It’s been six years since the Owensboro Red Devils won the KHSAA State Basketball Championship and with several standout underclassmen on the roster, OHS coach Rod Drake said he thinks they could bring another back to the ‘Boro in the next few years.
Drake said they have to worry about themselves first this season.
“We’re young and we’ve just got to get better,” he said. “Some of our older guys have to step up. Of course, we’re in the same boat as everybody else so it’s like we have to recreate the wheel. We just have to continue to get better and grow. As far as to get to where we want to be, our program has to take a step up every year and we’ve done that. Each one of our classes, we’ve had players in there so we really haven’t had a bad class in the last two or three years. The sophomore class is loaded … I think the next couple of years we can achieve that goal.”
Owensboro was led by Aric Holman (15.9 ppg), Justin Miller (16.4 ppg) and Darion Morrow (13.7 ppg) in 2015 as many of Drake’s players watched the 31-4 Red Devils while they were in middle school.
He said that legacy is something for his players to look toward.
“It means a lot,” he said. “One of the things we’ve had success with over here is our best players are usually guys that practice hard so they set the standard. They’ve seen Aric Holman, the 2015 team come through here, we didn’t have any slugs on that team and that’s what they see. They know what it takes to get here.”
For Drake and the Red Devils, the key this week in practice was maintenance.
He said they needed to clean up everything and get ready for the show next week.
“We’ve been working on our offense and defense,” he said. “Coach and I have been talking, today (Wednesday) will probably be our last day getting up and down. It’s going to be like a review for the big test.”
OHS returns a strong trio of senior leadership in Amari Robinson-Wales (13.6 ppg), Matt Brown (3.9 ppg) and Trey Hinton (2.0 ppg).
The Red Devils also have a few football players that will help this season, including sophomore Kenyata Carbon.
“I’ve said this before, a lot of coaches probably wouldn’t put up with it,” he said. “But we’re so used to it, every year, it’s just something in our mindset as coaches, we prepare for. The longer the better, we’ve done it before. We’ve turned around a Friday and played on Tuesday. We’re used to it and these kids, we had them in the summer before so it’s a good transition.”
Owensboro starts the season at home Monday against Butler County then takes on Hopkinsville Saturday at Christian County in the Toyota of Hopkinsville Classic.
