Next year is a big year for Mustang basketball. Not only is it the first year for coach Luke Bycroft, but potential starters Ethan Holloway, Evan Sigg, Cale Barnhart and Isaac Vink will all be seniors and the fifth probable starter Derek Bycroft will be a junior.
The veteran team is taking this offseason very seriously as they prepare for a run at the state tournament.
Holloway, a returning First-Team All-Pioneer and Honorable Mention All-State selection, is leading the way in that department.
The 6-foot-7 forward has been playing for an AAU team in Wichita and is scheduled to to attend camps in Frontenac and Ozark Christian College later this summer. This week he and classmate Trey Bruner attended a camp at the University of Kansas that ran Sunday though Thursday.
“The Frontenac camp is another KU camp,” Holloway said.
Holloway and Bruner got coaching from some of the top coaches in the state of Kansas as they were able to practice and go through drills in the morning before playing in games later in the day.
“We worked with a whole bunch of high school coaches that have a whole lot of state titles and have been to the state tournament a whole bunch of times,” Holloway said. “A lot of great coaching was there.”
The biggest thrill of the camp was the opportunity to play on one of the most storied floors in college basketball history at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
“It was a really great experience to play in Allen Fieldhouse,” Holloway said.
In addition to the camps, the Mustangs have been building their skills as a team by playing summer league ball by going around Southeast Kansas to face off with area teams.
“We’ve been practicing every Monday night at the high school and then on Wednesday, we go to different schools like Burlington and Central Heights and some other schools. We gotten to play some league schools, but also some schools that we don’t usually get to play.”
The Mustangs will play their final summer league game on Wednesday at Waverly.
