Trent Robison passes to a teammate before falling out of bounds in a playoff game against Reno last season.
A new era in Carson High basketball begins Tuesday.
Young Jordan Glover takes over for veteran Carlos Mendeguia, who stepped down after an 11-13 season.
Glover’s opener is Tuesday at Fernley. The Vaqueros are expected to challenge for the 3A championship.
“Everybody is pretty excited,” Glover said. “I’m pretty happy. The practices have been high energy. We have some size (and experience). We have pretty good depth. We can go eight, nine or 10 deep.”
Trent Robison, Jonathan Randall, Dawson Lamb, Kahle Good and Jordan Torres all return from last season. Robison is the only starting returner. Kyle Glanzmann, who was expected to battle for extensive playing time, suffered a foot injury at the tail end of the football season, and will miss the entire season.
Up from the JV squad are Lucas Von Brow, Jackson Sayre, Hunter Rauh, Colton Schafer, Derek Barry and Christian Miller. New to the program is football standout Abel Carter, who has wrestled the past three seasons, and transfer Deven Cripe from Washington. Sayre could’ve played varsity last season, but because of the transfer rule, he played junior varsity. He’s expected to start the opener, and he was the best player on the JV team last season.
Big things are expected of Robison, who’s the Senators’ tallest player at 6-foot-5.
“Trent’s length will cause people to change their shots,” Glover said. “He can score on the inside. He’s working to become more of a threat on the perimeter. When he has confidence, he shoots the ball real well. When he (Sayre) is on, he’s tough to guard. Jordan is very quick. We’re deep at guard. Hunter is a natural point guard. He needs to get a lot stronger (physically).”
“I think I’m a more complete player,” Robison said. “I had trouble handling the ball under pressure and I couldn’t shoot. I am more consistent this year.”
Carter, who played a bit for Glover during the summer, is the wild card. He’s expected to start, probably at point guard, and his presence could be a stabilizing factor. He seemed to pick things up without much trouble.
“He brings leadership and character in how he conducts himself,” Glover said. “He isn’t vocal, but he leads by example and his work ethic. The last thing to come back is usually ball handling. It came back in a couple of weeks for him.”
“He is a natural athlete,” Robison said. “He makes everything look so easy.”
Carter said it took him a bit to learn the plays, but once that happened he felt pretty comfortable with his return to the hardwood.
DAYTON DUST DEVILS
The Dust Devils return just Trevor Burrows and Chase Peterson from last year’s team.
Three juniors who were on the team last season elected not to return.
Burrows averaged 11.4 points and 4.6 rebounds, and Chase Peterson averaged 3.5 points and 1.8 rebounds a game.
Dayton coach Jason Santos is carrying three freshmen from his middle school championship squad — Lance Peterson, Tyler Skolfich and Pablo Ramirez. Other newcomers are senior Isaac Von Schoff, Keerat Bhullar, Joey Martinez, Jake Madson, Joshua Pasasouk and Hugo Ramirez.
“He (Burrows) said he’s excited about being the focal point of the offense,” Santos said. “We’re going to throw the ball into him as much as we can. He can score in the paint and score from outside. We’ll get him the ball from all over the place. Chase makes good decisions, and he can shoot the ball a little bit.
“We are young. The three of them are athletic and fast. We’ll see how they do (once the season starts). We played the normal tournaments during the summer and had open gyms, and all of that.”
Whether the extra work can overcome the inexperience remains to be seen.
SIERRA LUTHERAN FALCONS
Coach Ben Walther returns eight players — Zane Warkentin (15.1, 2.2), Nathan Waite (7.0, 0.8), Thomas Mellum (5.8, 0.7), Bret Walker (9.5, 3.0), Kyman Berger (6.7, 1.1), Peyton Hedwall (0.9, 0.4), Austin Stone (2.0, 0.4) and Jeremy Hellwinkel (0.8, 0.3) — from last season’s 16-11 squad that finished fourth in league.
“I am really looking forward to seeing what this year brings,” Walther said. “We had a successful last season, full of improvement across the board. With all of the returning players we have, I’m excited to build on the skills and team chemistry we achieved last year. Hopefully we will continue to improve this season, reaching our goals and advancing further in both tournament and league play.
“The strength of the team is our experience. While we have some very skilled players that share the ball and are able to score, we also have the athletic ability to be a great defensive team.”
Walthers’ biggest concern is size.
“We are guard heavy which could be a disadvantage against teams with a strong inside presence,” he said. “Our rebounding needs to improve. Although we have many athletic players, we need to approach defense as our highest priority.”
The Falcons open their season at home on Tuesday against Oasis Academy of Fallon. Tip-off is 7 p.m.