Mary Harrison, Campus Carrier sports editor

The Vikings basketball teams recently held scrimmages and will begin their 2022-2023 seasons next week. The men’s new coaching staff looks to build on last season’s momentum with majority returning players, while the women’s team looks to fill big shoes left in the spring by graduating seniors.

The men’s team played well both offensively and defensively in their scrimmage against Toccoa Falls College on Oct. 22, according to new Head Coach Mick Hedgepeth. Hedgepeth said the team needs to work on taking more shots and improving free throw efficiency.

“We did some good things and are headed in the right direction,” Hedgepeth said.

Over the summer, the men’s team welcomed Hedgepeth from Belmont University and new assistant coach, Matthew Richter, from Wabash College. Richter helped to coach the Vikings from 2018-2021, first as a volunteer and then as a graduate assistant.

Of the 13 team members on the roster this year, 11 played on last year’s team that won the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference championship. A pre-season poll released Oct. 28 predicted that the team will win the conference again this winter.

Richter compared the team’s expected success this year to performances that he said surprised conference opponents during his previous three-season tenure. 

“This year I think we’ll have a bit more of a target,” Richter said. 

Richter said it is unusual for a coaching staff to inherit such a cohesive and high-performing team, citing the men’s selflessness with sharing the ball and recent winning record.

“As a new coaching staff coming in, it is so rare to be around guys that have had so much winning in their past, but obviously all the returners have been at the top of the SAA in a lot of ways, so that’s pretty exciting for us,” Richter said.

Senior Riley Costas, who plays forward, said that veteran players have grown accustomed to meeting high expectations by continuing to improve. The team aims to once again win the conference in the regular season and championship, and to go as far as possible in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III playoffs.

“Ever since we got here, we’ve kind of been expected to be a good team and we have high expectations for ourselves, but that doesn’t change how we practice every day,” Costas said. “We have goals of our own regardless of what people say in the polls.”

Hedgepeth said the team faces a challenging pre-season schedule, including a game against the University of West Alabama, 2022 D-II conference champion, but he also hopes to see the team continue maximizing their potential.

The team’s focus for the season is “together,” and Hedgepeth said one way he hopes to accomplish this is pushing the team to grow as leaders and hold each other accountable. Seniors Costas and shooting guard Owen Honroth are key leaders among the group, Hedgepeth said.

“Expectations are high, which is a good thing,” Hedgepeth said. “You’ve got to be careful to guard against any kind of complacency and continuing to grow as a team.”

With a low roster compared to the typical 15 to 17 players, team members, and especially the two first-year students, have benefited from getting more experience on the court, Honroth said. However, fewer substitutes also means more impact from potential sickness and injury.

“You’ve just got to adapt and overcome,” Honroth said.

The women’s team, led by sixth-year Head Coach Thomas Johnson, won their scrimmage against Gadsen State Community College, also on Oct. 22, by 20 points.

“Sometimes that’s a little bit of a red flag when you think that you win so easily, but I think this team is so much better,” Johnson said.

Along with the scrimmage, practices, which have taken place since Oct. 15, have also revealed gaps on defense that need to be filled, Johnson said, with the biggest improvement needed in the guard position.

The team especially feels the absence of Kennedy Moore (22C), last season’s SAA Defensive Player of the Year. Moore is one of six players who graduated in the spring, so many of the team’s 11 returners lack game time experience. In basketball, only five players take the court at any given time.

Several players are battling injuries that have prevented them from practicing. Johnson said that when all players have recovered, they can solidify the team’s line up and substitute chart, which is helped by the fact that many players have interchangeable roles and can learn multiple positions.

“[We’re] just trying to get through the injuries and figuring out how old people can fill new roles, because everything changes every year,” Johnson said.

Johnson credited the senior leadership with doing a good job of helping the freshmen adjust to the team. Senior Sara Stiers, who plays forward, said this strength is shared by all the veteran team members.

“Having leaders as returners is probably one of the best benefits we could have going into this year, communicating to our underclassmen how coaches need us to execute things on the court,” Stiers said.

Stiers said the freshmen work hard, bring energy to practice and performed well in the scrimmage. 

“[The scrimmage] showed us we could do so much more, especially on the defensive end,” Stiers said. “If we could lock that in, we could return to do better than we did last year.”

Pre-season polls predicted that the Vikings would finish third the SAA this season. The women’s team finished second in the SAA last year, falling to Oglethorpe, an in-state rival, in the semifinal round of the conference championship. 

 The Vikings are also preparing to play reigning conference champion Rhodes College, who also has many returning players this year. 

“We want to be prepared for everybody we go against, but those two, we have a little chip on our shoulders,” Stiers said.

In addition to winning the conference championship, Stiers and the teams two other seniors, Sydney Blankenship Liz Sierzant, hope to win at least 20 of the 25 games scheduled, which would break a record for their time on the team.

Winning the conference means representing the SAA in the NCAA playoffs, according to Johnson. Conference play begins at home during the last week in November, and Johnson hopes to see much student engagement this year.

“I think we play a really exciting brand of basketball,” Johnson said. “The more people that can come out and support us, I think the harder and better we’ll play.”

The men’s and women’s teams will play home openers against Huntingdon College on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, respectively.