2009-10 Boys basketball preview: Harker Heights Posted On: Thursday, Nov. 12 2009 05:30 AM By Alex Byington
Killeen Daily Herald

HARKER HEIGHTS – Whenever a team loses its leading scorer to a Division I college, usually a team expects to experience some sort of drop-off.

Not Harker Heights, where longtime coach Celneque Bobbitt believes a little youth will go a long way in continuing a four-year playoff streak into the future.

"We're just excited for the next years to come," said Bobbitt, the longest tenured coach among the four Killeen ISD schools. "Hopefully these kids gel. But we don't know, we're just shooting for January and to keep our playoff streak going."

Heights' big loss is 6-foot-5 forward D.J. Stephens, who has taken his 69-inch wing span and impressive 43-inch vertical leap to the University of Memphis, where he's already making an immediate impact for first-year Tigers coach Josh Pastner.

But Bobbitt isn't worried given the talent and numbers he's got returning, including two juniors who broke the starting lineup last year – 6-foot-1 forward Brandon Bullock and 5-foot-10 guard Daevon Brown, who both made impacts on the football field.

"We added a lot more firepower and what we like is these kids are going to be together for the next two years solid," Bobbitt said. "We've got 17 kids we're looking at right now."

Looking for leadership, the Knights are hoping the experience both Bullock and Brown gained on the gridiron, with Bullock spending much of the season as Heights' starting quarterback, will translate well on the hardcourt.

"Brandon's a real undersized big-man and he's got a knack for the ball," Bobbitt said. "We called him the 'tip-in king' last year because he'd get 8-10 offensive rebounds and they'd be tipped (in)."

The Knights will also miss graduated starting forward Julian Jones and point guard Dino Davis, as well as reserve Jose Etienne.

"We're excited because we've got a lot of players – we're trying to get 6-8 points from 6-8 players and if that's the case, and one kid has a good game, we'll be alright," he said.

Among the new faces, many of who were on varsity but saw little game action, will be starting sophomore point guard Thomas Cherry and junior wing Royce Oneale.

"Thomas Cherry was a freshman on varsity last year, so we'll depend on him to run the show, and then we have Royce (Oneale), he came in and almost broke our 3-point record in one game (last year)," Bobbitt said.

Looking to fill Stephens' rebounding hole on the boards will be 6-foot-4 junior center Micha Rainey and 6-foot-6 sophomores Cameron Hughes and transfer Tramel McClendon.

Considering team rebounding and man-defense to be two of his team's weaknesses, Bobbitt is hoping that with a little game experience, those issues will solve themselves in time.

And if anyone knows what it takes to reach the pinnacle of District 12-5A, it's Bobbitt, who led Heights to the district title in 2006 before Bryan took the last two.

"People forget that, I don't. But that's alright because I don't secede district championships like some folks in town – you've got to win them," Bobbitt said. "I know I coach to win every day and I coach to go to the state championship, it doesn't matter what I've got."

And if the Knights can build off the talent they have returning, Bobbitt believes doing just that is not out of the realm of possibility.

Contact Alex Byington at alexb@kdhnews.com or at (254) 501-7566.