By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Both Union City High School basketball teams return their top players from last season.
The effectiveness of others, though, will determine the Tornadoes’ success this year.
All-Stater Amari Bonds is back for her senior campaign for the Lady Tornadoes, while the standout guard tandem of Malaki Brooks and D.J. Robinson headline the Twister boys’ roster as UC begins its 2022-23 season Tuesday at home against Crockett County.
According to UC coaches Antawn Coby and Shane Sisco, the emergence of players not named Bonds, Brooks, and Robinson is critical to their respective teams’ big-picture success.
“Everybody knows Amari can score, but she’s worked hard in the offseason on her playmaking ability to get others involved,” Coby said of Bonds, who averaged 20.6 points per game last season and has racked up more than 1,500 markers in her decorated Purple and Gold playing career to-date.
“She’ll continue to attract a lot of bodies defensively, and she’s gotten better at finding players and making efficient passes to them where they can be ready to shoot.
“And the players around her have put up a ton of shots during the summer and in the preseason. If they can knock down some threes and convert some other opportunities, we’ll be a much tougher opponent for other teams to deal with.”
Sisco, meanwhile, has high hopes of his program bouncing back from an uncharacteristic 12-18 campaign – although the Twisters did make it to the regional semifinals before losing to eventual state runner-up Milan.
“I think we’ll be more rounded, and we have more kids who can do more things than we had last year,” said the veteran coach who’ll begin his 24th season on the UCHS bench. “We do have Malaki (Brooks) and D.J. (Robinson) coming back, and they should be two of the best guards in a good district. We have to have leadership from them, though, and they must rebound the ball better.
“I believe we’ll be deep and will be able to play as many as 12 kids when we get our football guys with us. We’ll certainly be more experienced, and we’re bigger and stronger than we were last year. We’re more skilled, too. Hopefully, what we’ve seen in the preseason at times will translate into the same thing once we tip it off for real.”
A rugged non-district schedule that includes a pair of holiday tournaments for both programs is designed to prepare UC for a tough league that produced the Class 2A girls’ state champions (Westview) and the No. 2 boys’ team (Milan) last year.
UC Girls
Coby, who begins his third season at the helm of the Lady Tornadoes, said the emergence of junior guard Marlee Theobald would be critical to Union City’s success this year after the squad went 15-12 last season.
“Marlee started last year, and we hope that experience of handling the ball will take some of the load off Amari (Bonds) in that area,” the UC skipper said. “She’s going to have to be a little more selfish in finding her own shot rather than trying to get a better shot for someone else. And she’s capable of that.”
Theobald’s offensive production will certainly be needed to relieve all that burden from Bonds, who scored 20 or more points 16 times last season while shooting 45 percent from 2-point range and 79 percent from the foul line. She also averaged 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals per-game.
Junior Ada Rogers will step into a more prominent role this year after seeing sporadic action a season ago. Good things are also expected from juniors Aujani Moss and Brooklyn Murphy, senior Adaiysha Snow, and sophomore Debrionna Jones, who missed last season with a knee injury.
The Lady Tornadoes will play an up-tempo style for the third-straight season, relying on their press to force easy offensive opportunities.
“It’s been a process, and this is not a one-year thing,” Coby added. “It’s a system, and we have some girls who are beginning to understand where they should be and where they need to be at all times.
“We have to be productive with the press in order to be at our best.”
UC Boys
Brooks was a long-ranger bomber for the Tornadoes a year ago with 74 3-pointers while averaging 17.5 ppg in his sophomore campaign. He also shot 77 percent from the charity stripe. Robinson hit at a 12.4 ppg clip, shot 72 percent from the free throw line and averaged four rebounds per outing.
There’s certainly potential for more from Lewis (7.6 points, team-high 6.9 rebounds per game) and Kail, who got hot down the stretch from the perimeter and made most of his 35 3-pointers in the latter stages of the year while averaging 5.3 ppg.
“Joseph Lattus may be the most improved kid in our program. He’s really shot the ball well in the preseason,” said Sisco, who has directed the Tornadoes to 21 consecutive trips to the regional tournament and two of the program’s five state titles. “And Ben Kail is one of the hardest workers and most-dedicated kids I’ve ever had. With Brooks and Robinson, that will give us four players who can shoot the ball.
“And when you mix in Jaylen (Lewis) and (Jack) Tully – who must rebound the ball for us — and C.J. Davis, who’ll guard the other teams’ best player, we have some very capable pieces in addition to Malaki and D.J.”
Sisco says his team will “play fast” and will be at its best when forcing the tempo with relentless defensive pressure.
“We’re going to give up some easy opportunities because we’ll take chances, but we just have to continue to push the issue on both ends,” he claimed. “We have to make things uncomfortable for our opponents.
“It can’t become a halfcourt game for us. If it does, the same things that happened to us a year ago are a distinct possibility.”
As usual, Sisco has loaded up the Twisters’ non-district schedule with high-caliber opponents to ready his troops for a challenging district slate and then the postseason.
“Hopefully, the teams we’ll play and the athletes we’ll see in the first half of the season will prepare us for January when we begin our district schedule,” he said. “I think Gibson County has the best team on paper going in with lots of people back, including the best big man in the district, great size, and a guard who can really shoot. Milan graduated two good players but has some physical kids back from last year, and both Westview and Huntingdon will be very physical – just like they have been in football.
“It’s encouraging that we were close with Milan last year. We beat them once in three close games, and we pushed them into the late-going in the regional semis before they went on to be the state runners-up. I believe we have more kids this year who can do more things. We can play some different groups.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we measure up.”
