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Monrovia Weekly Nov 28, 2017
Monrovia basketball looks to increase their win total for the 3rd year in a row / flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/150276478@N03/34294599150 (CC by 2.0)
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Monrovia basketball looks to increase their win total for the 3rd year in a row / flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/150276478@N03/34294599150 (CC by 2.0)
By Spencer Stueve
Building a successful program in amateur school affiliated athletics is unlike anything in the professional ranks. While NBA and NFL teams can count on keeping their best players on a continuing basis year after year, high school and college is a continuous cycle of players coming and going. At the college level, coaches have the ability to recruit, and so their destiny is at least in their own hands. In high school, however, there is for the most part no recruiting, though it is often done with a wink, a nod, and administrative trickery. Still, coaches are tasked with building strong programs, and they do it one year at a time, over and over. Such is the task for Randy Hare at Monrovia High School.
Head Coach Randy Hare enters his 3rd season as the Head basketball Coach at Monrovia High School, and though the results of his first two seasons appear rather mediocre on paper, he has the Wildcats trending in the right direction. In 2015-2016, Monrovia finished with just an 11-16 record, and were just 3-7 in league play. Last year, they jumped their win total to 13, while also losing 13, and improved by one game in league action. Coach Hare will look for another jump in wins during the 2017-2018 season, which begins this week with a matchup against Adelanto High School.
Increasing their win total will not be easy, however. Jayden Scott, last year’s leading scorer, is gone to graduation. So too is Adam Woods Jr., the second leading scorer. There is significant talent returning, however. Rory Hare and James Smith are now seniors, and Charlie Scott is a junior. All three are expected to contribute for the Wildcats. Hare led the Wildcats in assist to turnover ratio last season, and Smith finished second. Expect both to be more aggressive on the offensive end this year.
The Wildcats will play over a month’s worth of preseason games before league play begins following the Christmas break. By then, Coach Hare hopes to have the Wildcats gelling, and increase the season win total for the third year in a row.
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