The Wright City boys basketball program has begun its first season under Head Coach David Evans, who is also  the school’s athletic director.

Evans takes over for former Head Coach Ken Brown.

“We had a pretty good atmosphere in practice last week, which is one of my goals for the preseason,” Evans said. “We want to keep the kids moving, get up and down the court quite a bit and increase the pace of play. Now we have to battle the knowledge concept of the game and see if we can learn to play a little bit smarter at a faster pace.”

The Wildcats appear to have the personnel to run a faster, smaller lineup.

The team lost starting forward — and leading scorer — Dakota Phillips to graduation, and former forward Robert Benoist is foregoing his senior season to focus on football.

“We have a big spot to fill after losing Dakota, but Cameron (Cole) has bulked up quite a bit,” Evans said. “He kind of reminds me of Dakota. He’s not quite as tall, but both guys will really scrap and get after it. Dakota wasn’t a big guy, but he played like a big guy.”

Cole was fourth on the team last season with 5.9 points per game, and is the second-leading scorer returning this year.

He will be joined by senior guard Devon Holmes, who averaged 13.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and two steals last season.

“Devon and Cameron are working hard,” Evans said. “David Liddell put in a lot of work in the offseason too. We have high hopes out of our big guy, Nick Boland. He needs to power up and get stronger underneath the basket, but he can definitely contribute quite a bit.”

Boland expects to be the only traditional post player in the Wildcats starting lineup after averaging 1.7 points and 3.2 rebounds last season.

Evans isn’t worried about the lack of size, because he believes it will allow his team to play faster.

“In today’s high school basketball, it’s mandatory,” he said. “When I played in high school, it was take your time and run the offense. Now it’s about scoring as fast as you can.”

Evans also hopes to get key contributions from a handful of newcomers.

Cameron Swaringen, J.J. McRoberts, Branden Contrares and Dillon Seabaugh are expected to see time on the varsity team at some point throughout the season.

“J.J. McRoberts played J.V. last year, but he’s a strong kid and he’s going to be playing some varsity,” Evans said. “Dillon can shoot, so we’re going to put him out there and see what he can do. Branden is a dedicated kid and he played really aggressively last year in eighth grade. High school is a different level, so we’ll see how he can compete, but he’s going to be on J.V. and varsity for us this year.”

When Evans hasn’t been working with his players to improve their games, he’s been busy improving his as well.

He and his staff attended the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Clinic at Columbia College in September, and he hopes the information will help the Wildcats this season.

“That was good because we got to see all levels of coaching and different ideas,” Evans said. “It’s a constant battle of running the right offense against the right defense, and on my end being smart enough to figure it all out before you get hurt. It’s a little bit intimidating, but I’ve got the right group of guys that make it a lot easier to work with.”

DOWN THE COURT — Devon Holmes drives past a Barat defender last season. Holmes is the leading returning scorer for Wright City this year. Kory Carpenter photo.