The Piedmont Wildcats boys’ basketball Head Coach Wil Scofield returns to the court Tuesday just in time for the first game of the year.
Scofield has been working, and coaching from home for three weeks due to quarantines from direct exposures. He returns to the bench for the opening night game at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Piedmont.
The boys and girls teams will play Lawton MacArthur. Lawton MacArthur’s boys are ranked third in Class 5A. They lost their opener against top ranked Tulsa Washington.
Meanwhile, it is not a good time to have to coach from home, when trying to prepare a basketball team for a season.
The Wildcats finished the year 9-14 in 2019-2020. The first year Scofield took over he had a 13-11 overall record in 2018-2019.
Scofield coached four years prior to Piedmont at Edmond North.
e along really well. Obviously, at 6 feet 4 he has some length and should be able to make a difference.”
This year, Scofield was sent home under quarantine Nov. 13. His wife, who is a healthcare worker, has also been quarantined during the pandemic. And the basketball players have been on quarantines, so not all of the players have practiced together.
But good assistants have helped.
At the end of last season, the season that was interrupted by the pandemic, Scofield’s team was beaten in the area semifinals by El Reno.
Returning starters this year are Gabe Rhone-Dunn, a senior, three year letterman, guard, 6 feet 1 inch tall, and Jayce Daniels, 6 foot junior, who averaged 12 points a game as a guard.
“We are going to be very young. We are going to have a bunch of young kids who could potentially contribute,” Scofield said.
He said assistants Dusty Pflugner, Zac Coulson and Austin Feuerborn have kept the Wildcats on track with COVID-19 lurking and changes of schedules and the different approach to conditioning and preparations.
Scofield said one emerging player is sophomore Colton Sydnes, 6 feet 4 inches, a guard.
“We are expecting him, Sydnes, to come along and contribute this year,” Scofield said. “He’s come along really well. Obviously, at 6 feet 4 he has some length and should be able to make a difference.”
The team is also expected to benefit from the play of Decata Warrior, a senior, who has not played basketball in a couple of years, but will help the team with his toughness. Warrior was a starting defensive back and offensive weapon for the football team.
“He is a really good athlete and is going to be a very good defender and help out a bunch,” Scofield said.
Scofield is in his third year in Piedmont. He was an assistant at Edmond North five years and one year at Bishop McGuinness.
He said it has not been easy coaching from home by cellphone and Facebook Live.
“My assistants do a really, really good job. I’m really fortunate to have a coaching staff who does a great job with the guys and communicate what we want to get done and what we want to do,” Scofield said.
The Wildcats have had scrimmages that Scofield watched on Facebook against Deer Creek, Bridge Creek and at Purcell.
“It’s been a really strange year,” Scofield said.
The players have been quarantined twice during the fall semester.
“We’re kind of at square one, right now, we haven’t had a lot of consistency scrimmage-wise, we are earlier on in our progression than the calendar would say. But we are hoping to be at our best by the time February rolls around,” Scofield said.
The playing field is fairly level, with other teams facing the same COVID-19 challenges, overall, he said.
“There are teams who have not been hit by it like us but might be later on. We are just going to control what we can,” Scofield said.
He expects everybody will be at a different level in their conditioning.
He said the team had a good month of conditioning after school started for the fall before the quarantines started.
Looking ahead against Lawton MacArthur, Scofield expects a tough game. The Highlanders lost to Tulsa Memorial 91-86 on Nov. 28.
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