1A Frontrunners: Gary 21st Century
The season is getting closer and closer and we are starting to dive into the rosters and Sectionals that will help to determine who are the top competition for each class. Today, we take a look into 1A and the frontrunners. Today, we breakdown Gary 21st Century.
Last Year’s Record: 19-9
Head Coach: Rodney Williams
Top Returning Players: DeAndre Gholston (Sr.), Johnell Davis (So.)
Top Departures: Core’Von Lott (Graduate), Armad Cathey (Graduate)
New Additions: N/A
Why A Frontrunner: When you are a 1A program and have a player like DeAndre Gholston, that is going to do a lot for you. For a few years now, 21st Century has been able to produce quite a few players and with Gholston and Johnell Davis on the perimeter, that will give this team a duo that is going to be really hard to defend. They have some size as well ranging from 6-3 to 6-6 and if some of those player can contribute, that will present them with the opportunity to defend teams a bit better. The nice thing here is that Gholston is 6’4 and Davis is 6’2, giving this group size with their best players. If they can find a true point guard with some speed to add that element to this team, they would have just about everything they need. Also, 1A North is really weak this year with only a couple true state contenders and it shouldn’t be a tough route for 21st to take to get a shot at it.
Outlook: With the way their schedule and State run would line up, it looks like they should be on their way back to Semistate with very few that could really take a run at them. However, at that point they would have to take on a team like Blackhawk Christian or Southwood and that is going to be where their actual test happens. On the low-end, they should get back to Semistate and on the high-end they could win the whole thing. More realistic is they cruise through Sectionals and Regionals but have trouble in the Semistate round.