Clearfield Bison
Head coach: Nate Glunt
2019-20 Record: 15-9 overall, 8-6 Mountain League
Playoffs: Won District 9 Class 4A title with a 51-40 win over Bradford. It was the Bison’s fifth D9 title in a row.
Top returning players: Karson Rumsky (Sr., G, 12 ppg, 6 rpg; 699 career points), Cole Miller (So, G, 7 ppg, 2 rpg, the top 3-pointer shooter in 2020), Matt Pallo (Sr., G, 6 ppg, 2 rpg), Luke Winters (Sr., G, 4 ppg, 2 rpg), Nick Ryan (Sr., F, Excellent defender, rebounder), Ryan Gearhart (Jr., G, One of the top-returning perimeter defenders), Curvey Puckett (Sr., F, top shot-blocker and rebounder)
Top players lost: Cade Walker (1,066 career points; 17.0 ppg, 8 rpg), Andrew Lopez (7 ppg, 5 apg)
Key newcomers: Jake Lezzer (Sr., F; Played varsity as a freshman; Injury kept him out last year; Excellent defender/rebounder), Isakk Way (Jr. F, Good rebounder, excellent in help-side defense and finding teammates for open shots), Nasheed Thompson (Jr., G, Good playmaker and an excellent shooter), Morgan Billotte (So,m G, Good playmaker and rebounder)
Keys to the season: The keys to our season are to outrebound and get more paint touches than our opponents and limit our turnovers. We want to play well in transition and use our depth as an advantage to keep guys fresh during the games.
Things your team is doing during the COVID-19 pause of winter sports: Currently, we are having individual virtual workouts that are run similar to a zoom meeting except we use Microsoft Teams for the workout. I think the keys will be how fast we can come together as a team because we can’t do anything together right now. I think it will help to have experience because we just haven’t had a lot of time to work with the younger players since the practices have stopped.
