Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
The Fernley High school boys basketball team will open its season Thursday in the first of at least three games in the Lake Mead Holiday Classic in Las Vegas.
The Vaqueros open the tournament at 8 p.m. Thursday against either Lake Mead Christian Academy or Moapa Valley, who square off at noon.
With only four returning varsity players from last year’s team, and without a preseason scrimmage, coach Derek Miller said he will use the tournament to try to figure out what kind of team he has, and which players are going to step up to be relied upon.
“I’m trying to see what we have and see what we can do,” Miller said.
Seniors Rei Robinett, Ricky Dumont and Kyle Heimbruch and junior Drew Miller are the four retuning varsity players. They’ll be joined by seniors Sahe Deweerd and Roland Austin, juniors Trevor Hargett, James Huckaby, Matthew Glover and Guylar Unger, sophomore Daunte Ceresola and two freshmen, Carson Kingston and Isaac O’Neill.
With Dumont at 6-foot-5, Drew Miller at 6-4, and both Glover and Unger at 6-3, the Vaqueros have more size than the past couple seasons, although Derek Miller said not all of them are used to playing in inside and will have to get used to playing in the post.
“I like what I see,” Miller said.
However, he said the team will be leaning on its veterans to show the way, especially early.
“I think there will be some growing pains, but we should be all right that way,” Miller said.
With the addition of North Valleys to the Northern 3A this season, the Vaqueros lost their two early-season nonleague games. They will open league play Dec. 7 at South Tahoe.
Miller said he expects Fallon, Elko and Lowry to be among the teams to beat in the league as always, but he expects every game will be tough.
“In our league you can’t take a night off if you want to win,” he said.
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