BY JACK BULLOCK For five consecutive seasons Carrier Mills dominated this league but that title run came to a close last season as both Crab Orchard and Gallatin County rose above those Wildcats in the league standings. Both the Trojans and Hawks also carried their success from the regular season into the postseason with the collecting of regional titles. A last second win at the Sesser-Valier 1A Regional over the host Red Devils was the first boy's basketball regional title ever for Crab Orchard. Drew Johnson scored with just under ten seconds left in regulation as the Trojans won 58-57 to cut down the nets. Gallatin County's up and down season had a big up at the end as the Hawks downed host Hardin County in the finale of the Hardin County 1A Regional, 56-38. Head coach Robert “Rader” Patton has nearly everyone back from that club that eventually lost to sectional champion Meridian. Coach Jon Brown has Johnson and Ben Kissing, two standouts that will both enter their senior seasons to try and lead the Trojans to even better things after setting a school-record for wins with a 29-4 overall mark and a 14-0 league record. Those two teams are the cream of the GEC crop heading into 2011-12. Coach Mark Motsinger has done too good of a job over the years to ever count his Carrier Mills club out of the title picture. The Wildcats will have some good athletes back to challenge the top two. In just one season Coach Rodney Lane has gotten Hardin County heading in the right direction. The Cougars had some big wins last season and despite losing second-team ABV 1A pick Austin German, this coach has four starters back from that club that fell to Gallatin County in the regional title tilt. Coach Doug Miller at Norris City-Omaha-Enfield will put a competitive team on the floor even after graduation losses. Those Fighting Cardinals lost four senior starters but return some quality kids that will take their turn this winter. Thompsonville also sent away a lot of seniors but head coach Brandon Chaplain has some returning experienced kids that got into some action last season. Galatia lost the GEC MVP and first-team ABV 1A choice Denton Reed and new head coach Kendall Hankins. Pope County was just 2-21 last season and they now have yet another head coach as Jim Simmons takes over and tries to get the Pirates out of the cellar. As for the top spot, you can make a case for either Crab Orchard defending its title or Gallatin County jumping to the top of the standings. You won't go wrong with either but ABV has never been one to sit on the fence.

1. GALLATIN COUNTY The Hawks have a lot of talent returning, perhaps as much basketball talent as anyone in the 1A South. The young team that struggled at times last season have matured by a year and this should bode well for a return to 20-wins and perhaps a crack at another regional crown. Head coach Robert “Radar” Patton has definitely the tallest player in southern Illinois back for his junior season. Andrew Drone is a 7-foot junior center that will be the focal point for the Hawks' offense once again this season. Drone put up great numbers as a sophomore with 18.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game for a team that won its first regional title since its creation. As of this writing Drone has been offered a full-ride to Wright State, a Division I school in Fairborn, Ohio. With another summer of seasoning this young man should be even better than last year. He was a tough matchup for most teams last season because of not only his size but also his ability to finish in the lane. Drone hit 61 percent of his shots, a percentage that would have been higher had he not missed his only two 3-point shots. Getting him the ball at times last season proved to be very difficult at times but Drone made up for a lot of those empty trips by crashing the offensive glass for 121 offensive rebounds. The second leading scorer from last season is also back, 6-foot-5 junior Patrick Lowe who averaged 13.3 points a contest. Six-foot-two senior Andrew Cox (7.4 p.p.g.) will join Drone and Lowe in a very impressive frontcourt, maybe the best in the 1A Deep South. But the backcourt will be the key to the improvement this season. Five-foot-eleven senior Bryant Aud returns as a starter. Aud averaged 6.1 p.p.g. last winter for the Hawks. Daine Hish is a 5-foot-10 junior who is a left-handed shooting guard that had some good games early in the season but tapered off a bit later in the year. He hit four first quarter 3-pointers (22 points) in an early season win at Galatia last November. Hish averaged 6.3 points a game while being Gallatin County's top long range shooter. Coach Patton mentioned Mitchell Ramsey as a potential starter, perhaps sharing backcourt chores with Hish. Coach Patton likes what he sees from his bench as he is hoping for good things from three returning players. Anthony Sorto is a 5-foot-10 junior guard who chipped in some points last season and ate up some minutes for Gallatin County. The same can be said about Wes McGuire who is a 6-foot-3 junior forward and 6-foot senior forward Drake Patton, the coach's son. That is nine capable players for a club that is coming off of a 20-11 season. The game-plan for this program became very clear when looking at the schedule. By entering a tough Tournament of Champions in Washington, Illinois, Gallatin County is looking for some tough competition to get their kids better prepared for the postseason. There isn't much they can do about the rest of the slate but by playing four games in two days against schools that dwarf GC in enrollment, Coach Patton will accomplish what was intended. The Hawks even at 0-4 will be a better team when they get back to Junction. Two glaring weaknesses that showed up on the season ending stat sheet must be fixed if the Hawks are going to sore to new heights. Gallatin County committed 428 turnovers last season, including an eye-opening 39 in its 76-53 sectional loss to Meridian. That is a 13.8 turnovers per contest average. That number needs to be cut in half. The assist-to-turnover ratio was about 2-to-1 in the red. Coach Patton's club was just average from the foul line with a 57.6 percent success rate. The Hawks lost seven games last season by three points or less. A better percentage from the foul line last season could have prevented all seven of those losses. Championships are won from the foul line and it these Hawks are going to win another regional and get a shot at a sectional title, both of those categories must be improved. “We have to improve both our free throw shooting and our handling of the ball this season,” said Coach Patton. “We were young and inexperienced last season but that shouldn't be a problem this year. Opening in the Tournament of Champions will definitely help us down the line.” Two potential milestones for this group are worth mentioning. Drone is just 35-points short of 1,000 in his career and he shouldn't take too long to reach that total. With 21-wins this season, Coach Patton will reach 200 victories as a head coach in both boy's and girl's basketball (179-113 overall). Both of those goals should be attained in 2011-12. OUTLOOK – This could be a very special season for those Orange and Blue clad Hawks. Gallatin County managed to grind out 20-wins last season with a strong start to the season and a strong finish last February that took them into March. But it was the middle part of the season that is a question mark heading in. Can this team put together a season long run that will result in another postseason successful crusade? They have the athletes in place and the right combination of size and guard play. If they can somehow take better care of the ball and convert free throws, especially in close games against Crab Orchard, Carrier Mills and the rest of the teams on the schedule, this may be the year that this program gets to a supersectional.

2. CRAB ORCHARD Although you might make a case that with just two starters back that these Trojans might take a step back, as Lee Corso would say on ESPN College Game Day, “Not So Fast My Friend.” Having two of the top players in the league on one team would make anyone a contender. The Trojans have just that with both Ben Kissing and Drew Johnson returning for their final prep campaigns respectively. Head coach Jon Brown has guided this program to a high level and this team should sense the urgency of the moment. Going 29-4 last season was a special run and earning that first ever regional hardware should add to the 2011-12 incentive plan in place as Crab Orchard will open its season at home hosting its own Thanksgiving event. Trico bounced the Trojans out of the sectional at NCOE 64-49. Ben Kissing is a 6-foot-5 senior forward who has improved greatly since starting as a freshman. He is the third of three brothers (Ray and Tommy) that played for Coach Brown at Crab Orchard. Last season Kissing put up some big numbers, scoring 21.5 points a night while grabbing 9.5 rebounds per contest. Anytime you are averaging nearly a double-double, you are playing at a high level. Kissing, according to this coach, has improved his game each year as he has matured. Look for even better things from this kid who has gotten better at facing the basket. He will be a difficult matchup for teams on this schedule. Bigger centers will have trouble following him outside while smaller ones will get muscled around in the paint. Five-foot-eleven senior Drew Johnson is back in the backcourt for the Trojans and he was second on the team in points with a 17.6 average. With that one-two punch coming back, Crab Orchard will be able to beat teams on the inside and from long range. Another returning starter is Coty Wece, a 5-foot-8 senior guard, who netted 5.5 points and surprisingly ended up third on the team in rebounding with 3.1 rebounds a game. Crab Orchard did lose a pair of seniors from 2010-11 in Dylan Hutson (11.3 p.p.g., 2.6 r.p.g.) and Brandon Boester (5.7 p.p.g., 7.6 r.p.g.) and they will be noticed missing. But look for some key players coming back to fill in the blanks. Caleb Perry played a lot as a freshman last season and look for this 5-foot-9 sophomore to make an impact this winter. Perry pitched in 3.2 points a night last season. Following those four kids, Coach Brown has to make some playing time decisions with some untested kids. The first one that Coach Brown can look to is one that hasn't played any organized basketball since he was in grade school but has been a pleasant surprise in preseason practice. Six-foot-three senior Hunter Arnold has been helping out quite a bit and if things stay the course he will be one of the starters in the frontcourt with Kissing and Perry. One kids with limited experience transferred in from Marion and could also impact the starting playing time. Five-foot-nine sophomore Tyler Deaton is an off-guard and has shown a lot of hustle at practice according to this coach. Coach Brown also mentioned a freshman, 6-foot-1 Colton McCree who will get into some varsity games off the bench. “We will be a pressure defense and up tempo team again,” said Coach Brown, author of a 248-198 record in 16 years at Crab Orchard. “We will push the ball offensively but we are also capable of scoring in a half-court set when needed. Like last season we will need to play fundamentally sound defense. We should be an excellent 3-point shooting team.” OUTLOOK – If Kissing matches his production from last season he will glide past the school's all-time leading scorer Jason Dwyer (who netted 1,881-points). The great debate in this league this season is who will win the league between Crab Orchard and Gallatin County. If everyone in Orange and Black can stay healthy then they could go back-to-back in the regular season and league tournament despite a strong challenge from those Hawks. The two scheduled contests between Gallatin County and Crab Orchard (December 6 and January 20) will determine the GEC regular season championship. It will surprise no one if they meet a third time at the league tournament at SIC.

3. CARRIER MILLS The Wildcats had issues last season and hopefully for the sake of this coaching staff the worst season out of the past six is but a nightmarish memory. In his 27 years of coaching, Coach Mark Motsinger may have never seen anything like what happened last season for CM. Poor shooting took care of any chances the Wildcats had of winning this conference for the sixth consecutive season. They managed to finish above .500 last season at 16-13 overall and 8-6 in the GEC. Following seasons in which they won both conference titles and then took home regional honors, Carrier Mills got bounced out of the Hardin County Regional by the host Cougars, 61-51. Missing from that club from graduation are Dillan Harrison and JR Brown and their combined 18 points a game. Look for this program to respond with another good season with an outside shot at making a run at both Gallatin County and Crab Orchard for the league championship. Coach Motsinger will have three returning starters back to make some noise. Six-foot-five Gabe Morgan is now a senior after being a part of this varsity unit for four years. Last season Morgan averaged 12.4 points to lead the team in scoring. Another senior back is Collin Crim, a 5-foot-10 senior, who added 7.8 points a night. Cameron Taborn is a 6-foot-2 junior who started games for Carrier Mills in the second half of the season after earning his way into the lineup. He finished his sophomore season with a 5.7 p.p.g. average. Those three are the returning players with the most experience. Coach Motsinger, who is a member of the 500-win club, mentioned three other kids with potential that will fill out the starting lineup and also the sixth man role. Two of the players are seniors; 6-foot-1 forward Clayton Stucker (2.8 p.p.g.) and 5-foot-8 guard Dathan Taborn. Five-foot-ten junior Josh Bailey got into 20 games last season and could be part of the starting line up at some point, especially in the first week of the season when Carrier Mills travels to the Vienna Turkey Classic. Coach Motsinger is hoping some of the incoming freshman can make a difference in varsity games, and practice purposes. “Our numbers are down in our program and school but we expect improvement this season and we have a strong freshman class coming in,” said Coach Motsinger, who is 569-201 in coaching boy's basketball and women's college hoops in 27 years. “Returning starters Morgan and Crim will be counted on heavily.” OUTLOOK – Although the Wildcats slipped down into third place in the league last season don't think for a minute that they will suddenly be out of the picture. Carrier Mills has won a lot of games in this league in the past few seasons with a pair of regional titles since the state went to four-class basketball and reached a sectional title game in 2009. They will have to shoot the ball better this season and can't make the mental mistakes that they made last winter. Look for a better won/loss mark in 2011-12 but it is unlikely they will be good enough to take down either of the top ones in the GEC this season. But don't count them out.

4. HARDIN COUNTY Coaching stability is a big thing at any small school. Which is why it was no wonder that the Cougars have struggled recently. Three coaches in three years before Coach Rodney Lane took over last season made for a rough go for the kids in this program. However Coach Lane had brought steadiness to the sidelines for this team that made huge strides by the time they reached the title game of their own regional last February. Gallatin County ended the Cougars season at 14-15 (6-8 in the GEC) in the HC 1A Regional finale. Gone from that team was second team ABV 1A pick Austin German, a 5-foot-10 senior guard who averaged 19 points and eight rebounds a game for the Cougars. That is the bad news. The rest of the story is all good. Four starters are back to help continue the resurrection of a program that went through a lot of tough times in a very far southeastern corner of this state. Coach Lane will turn to Kyle Holloman, a 5-foot-10 senior, who averaged 13 points a game for the Cougars. Holloman, according to Coach Lane, will be a big presence on the floor for the Cougars this year in taking on more responsibilities with German having departed. Five-foot-ten senior Tony Parkinson is also back and is a versatile guard/forward type. Since the Cougars aren't blessed with a lot of size, everyone wearing a uniform will need to play bigger. Parkinson has the potential to become a bigger part of the scoring offense. Both Parkinson and Holloman started every game for Hardin County last season. Garrett Flemmings is a 5-foot-9 senior point guard who will once again run the offensive show for the Cougars. He was moved to PG in the second half of the season and responded with a good year, averaging eight points a game. The fourth of the starters back from 2010-11 is Joe McClenahan, a 6-foot-2 senior center and the only real size on the club. McClenahan averaged eight points a game as well as a junior. According to Coach Lane, all of the kids had good summers of playing basketball and getting better. Brandon Flemmings is a 6-foot-1 senior, who was with the team early last season, has returned and could bring a lot of athletic ability to a wing spot. Six-foot-one senior newcomer Garrett Hayes joined the team and will help out. Two juniors will be called upon by this coach. Five-foot-ten Dalton Vaughn and 5-foot-11 Skyler Williams could see a lot of time as will Jeremy Hicks, a 6-foot-1 sophomore. Coach Lane also has a good freshman group he might use early in the season with the Cougars scheduled to play five games in the first week of the season in the Crab Orchard Turkey Tournament. “In GEC this year I see Gallatin and Crab as the teams to beat with Carrier Mills being in the hunt,” said Coach Lane, who played at Hardin County and is taking care of the business at hand in working with some good kids. “Our team gained a lot of experience a year ago, and with some success in the regional these players are determined to get back to that kind of atmosphere. With four returning starters, all seniors, we should be in games at the end. All of these kids have worked hard over the summer and should compete with these top three teams. With our size (no one over 6-foot-2) we will have to do a better job defending the post and rebounding. OUTLOOK - The Cougars got themselves two postseason wins over Eldorado and Carrier Mills before losing to Gallatin County in the regional title game. That is the sort of building blocks that a program like this needs to move toward the future. They picked up some good wins last season, including a win over Gallatin County in the regular season. They will miss German this year but the ones back have experience in the limelight. They should turn those won-loss numbers around this year with the Cougars getting over .500. They won't be a pushover for any of the teams in this conference.

5. NORRIS CITY-OMAHA-ENFIELD Head coach Doug Miller has done a lot of good work with this program and the Fighting Cardinals should continue to earn that moniker with some kids coming back from last season's club that finished 11-15 overall and 8-6 in the conference. In fact they topped Gallatin County three times last season and ended Carrier Mills' 34-game regular season Greater Egyptian Conference winning streak. Coach Miller, unfortunately saw four seniors put on cap and gown's last spring and he will look to rebuild around one returning starter. The ones gone scored 34 points a game in 2010-11. Kody Sutton, Kalin Brinkley, Colby Payne and Randy Stacyk have graduated leaving the Cardinals without a lot of experience back. However this coach has rebuilt before and he will manage in 2011-12. Two of the players back were letterwinners for NCOE. Justin Knight and Cole Tucker played a lot of minutes for Coach Miller last winter. Knight, a 6-foot-1 junior, averaged 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds a game as a sophomore. The 5-foot-9 Tucker is a sophomore who added five points a couple of rebounds to the team totals. Five-foot-ten junior Colton Stecyk will be in the chase for a starting spot along with classmate Matt Frymire, a 5-foot-10 junior. The sophomore class will contribute three potential starters with 6-foot-2 Dakoka Wheeler (1.2 p.p.g.) as the only one with a scoring average over one point. Briar Short is a 5-foot-8 guard and Jacob Taylor is 5-foot-10. Those seven kids will be a good start for the Cardinals who will, like Hardin County, will lack overall size. “We will be very, very young with no seniors but we have 25 total kids in the program,” said Coach Miller, who is a McLeansboro native and has done a fine job leading NCOE. “We have a group of young, hard-working kids who should be fun to coach. We should get better as the season goes along. These kids could have a bright future.” OUTLOOK – This coach might get more out of his kids than any mentor in the South. Year after year NCOE produces results and usually an upset or two along the way. With just a handful of kids back they will start over and with not much size they will be up against a big obstacle when facing more teams on the schedule. They will open at the Grayville Thanksgiving Tournament where they will run into some solid teams the first week. Coach Miller will have this team playing hard and they will win their share of games.

6. THOMPSONVILLE The Tigers limped home last season with a 6-17 record, 2-10 in the GEC, but the future looks a bit better than it did a year ago. Coach Brandon Chaplain has a better understanding of what it takes to be a head coach and that experience gained last season should help in 2011-12. Five seniors left this past spring leaving a lot to be done by the ones coming back. However sometimes when you finish with just six victories on a season, the new ones coming in might the team a better product. Thompsonville has some kids back that played a lot of basketball last winter on the varsity. Five-foot-nine junior Brady Householder might be the key to the whole season as this coach will count on this two-year starter and varsity performer to continue to play well and lead by example. Another name mentioned by this mentor is Lance Darnell, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, who started on the varsity in the second half of the season. The rest of the starters will come from a group of kids that are all underclassmen. The juniors include 6-foot Derrick Harrison, 6-foot-2 Brendan Clark, 6-foot Zach Baker, 6-foot-3 Shane McRoy and 5-foot-10 Travis Parkhill. The sophomores listed include 6-foot-4 Ryan Darnell, 6-foot-5 Quentin Henson, 5-foot-5 Tate Kerley, 5-foot-9 Jake Williams and 5-foot-7 Keifer Payne. Tyler Parkhill, 5-foot-8 sophomore could also play. This forms the roster of Thompsonville, which is a pretty good varsity list considering that this school has just 100 kids. “This year will be an interesting one for us. We will be very young and inexperienced with only one retuning starter,” said Coach Chaplain. “I wouldn't have it any other way though. This young group is a very good group of guys, that work hard and enjoy the game. I'm excited to get to work with this young group and for them to get some games under their belts.” OUTLOOK – The Tigers should show some marked improvement this season and with not a senior to be found, the next two seasons should be much more enjoyable. For a school this size, they have some size up front to work with. Householder and Lance Darnell should both have big seasons. The rest will have to keep up if Thompsonville is going to threaten to move very far up the GEC list.

7. GALATIA Head coach Kendall Hankins is in his first season as a varsity head coach as he takes over for Bob Belford this season in running a Bearcats' program that finished 18-11 overall and 10-4 in the conference, which was good enough for second place behind Crab Orchard in the regular season standings. The league MVP and ABV 1A first-team selection Denton Reed has graduated with a bunch of points going with him down the isle and out the door. Reed was the top scorer in the GEC last season and this one lit up a lot of scoreboards. The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 26.2 points a game. This backcourt specialist hit 77 percent of his free throws and they were the top seed at the Hardin County 1A Regional where they lost to Gallatin County, 55-51 in the semifinals. Not only did Reed leave the building, but six other seniors are also gone. That half dozen represented scorers 2-thru-7 on the scoring averages for 2010-11. In other words, most of the points are history and the Bearcats and this new coach get to start over. There are some kids back who wore the uniform for Galatia last season and they will need to step right up to the plate if this team is going to continue its recent successful trend. The one with the most experience is 6-foot-2 senior guard Josh Moore, who tossed through 3.4 points per game off the Bearcats' pine last winter. Six-foot-one senior Ben Genet also is back (3.7 p.p.g.) as those two will have much to do this season as starters. Five-foot-seven sophomore Brodie Beckman is back after scoring 2.3 points a game as a freshman. Coach Hankins mentioned a fourth potential starter, 5-foot-10 senior Travis Bond. He finished his senior season with just under two points a game. The rest of the players who will open the season will come from untested underclassman. “We have a good group of hard-working kids that are very unselfish,” said Coach Hankins. “This team is determined to no be out hustled and will compete no matter what.” OUTLOOK – Galatia has much to overcome heading into the 2011-12 campaign and this coach along with his squad will have to work very hard to get to double-digits in wins for the season. There will be some people on the schedule that won't overwhelm them but much will be determined by how well the new ones can handle varsity play. Moore and Genet look to be the keys to the success of this club and everyone who suits up will need to be ready when they take the court at the Grayville Tournament in November.

8. POPE COUNTY According to new head coach Jim Simmons, his top seven kids are interchangeable and that any of the seven could start. Those seven were all part of last season's team that finished just 2-21 overall and without a conference win in going 0-12 with two games not made up because of weather. Of those seven, non of them are seniors. Six-foot junior Dallas Cockrum is back at a guard position as is 5-foot-10 sophomore Bruce Dunlap. On down the list is 5-foot-8 junior guard Kyle Wise. Five-foot-eight junior Austin Ferrell is in the mix as are 5-foot-6 junior Adam Schuchardt and 5-foot-8 junior Tyler Thompson. One other junior, 6-foot-1 forward Corey Risen, rounds out the seven listed. “We are looking at rebuilding this program from the top down,” said Coach Simmons, who coached previously as a head coach at Graves County, Hopkinsville and Crittenden County, all in Kentucky. “The program was 5-43 the past two seasons and we're hoping to bring some pride back into the program.” OUTLOOK – At least there are some numbers in the program and going 2-21 didn't scare away any of the returning seven. There isn't much size to work with here so the Pirates, if they're going to pick up any additional wins will have to take good care of the ball and keep teams off of the boards. If they can add an additional win or two, folks in Pope County should be thankful.