Cavs have more questions than answers

SPENCER— As hard as it is to imagine, North Rowan boys basketball coach Kelly Everhart was hoping he wouldn’t have to see seven of his players at practice this week.

Not that Everhart doesn’t want a full squad to run drills. He just wants the Cavalier football team to win as many games as possible.

Everhart lost 90 percent of his scoring from last year’s 27-1 team. He’s still missing 58 percent of the inexperienced squad that’s supposed to take the court this season.

“I want the guys to concentrate on football first — I want them to win the state,” Everhart said. “If that causes us to suffer a little bit in basketball at the beginning, that’s OK.

“I’m anxious to get the football players out there, but football has to come first right now. I hope we’re in a situation in late February or March where the baseball coaches are saying, ‘I want them to go ahead and concentrate on basketball until they finish out.’ ”

The rebuilding process that Everhart faces in his fourth season as the head coach at North is going slower than planned as seven of his varsity basketball players are still occupied on the gridiron. Three of those seven make up the small group of Everhart’s returning players.

Demario Peoples, who averaged 0.8 points a game last season, is the only returning North basketball player not on the football team.

“It’s probably going to be a rebuilding year. Losing seven guys from last year was an awfully big loss,”Everhart said. “These guys coming in this year will have some big shoes to fill.”

They have to get back in the gym first. The three football players that played varsity basketball last season — Junior Farmer, Dominique Bates and James House —averaged a combined 6.5 points a game.

Farmer, who is a 6-foot-7, 295-pound lineman, should anchor the middle for the Cavaliers.

“He can be a force inside. He’s very athletic,”Everhart said. “He shoots fairly well, and he’s very quick to be that large. He’ll be our go-to-guy inside.”

Bates, at 5-8, 175 pounds, will probably see time at both guard positions.

House, who’s 6-3 and weighs 215 pounds, should join Farmer in the post.

“He’s a steady player who doesn’t make many mistakes,”Everhart said.

Beyond that, Everhart doesn’t know a whole lot about his team. His biggest concern is finding a point guard, and there are several candidates at this point. Lamar Geter, who didn’t play varsity last season but has been on the jayvee squad in the past, is one of them.

Everhart might even put sophomore Marcus Mitchell, the son of Livingstone women’s coach Andrew Mitchell, there.

“It scares me to death,”Everhart said. “That’s going to be one of our weaknesses right now, how we’re going to get the ball up the court.”

Everhart could also plug a hole at the small forward position with Mitchell, as well as football players Jamar Connor and Aaron Corby.

Corby, who is 6-4 and weighs 235, will most likely play in the post, though, and be joined by Rod Hawkins.

It’s basically a lot of speculation by Everhart, who is still waiting on his opportunity to prove that this year’s group of Cavaliers won’t be pushovers.

“A lot of these guys don’t have a lot of court experience right now, but after they get a couple of games under their belt, we’ll be very competitive,” Everhart said.

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Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com .