This season the Pleasant Plains basketball team has big expectations. With four returning starters, the team looks set in all positions with experience to follow. The official start of the 2011-2012 season was on November 7th, which is when practices began. The first game will be help on November 21st in the Crimson Classic shootout in Jacksonville. The team hopes to overcome the loss of five seniors and believes that this year’s senior class can step up and lead the team in the right direction. Returning starter and leading scorer, Braxton Lanier, will lead with experience from previous years. Most of the players on the team continued to participate in basketball activities over the course of the summer. Players competed in many tournaments, including one held at SWIC (Southwestern Illinois College) which is one of the best JUCO’s in the nation. The schedule this year is very similar to last year. They are still continuing to compete in the Macomb Holiday Tournament and the County Tournament, where the team hopes to repeat in the championship, but there is no Plains Invite because the team will be competing in the Sports Radio 1450 Shootout. The team is very deep with a lot of talented players that can step up and fulfill their role. Last year the team had a 19-11 record, the season ended with a heartbreaking loss in triple overtime against Pittsfield in the Regional Championship. However, this year their goal is to go further than that. The boys are expected to be one of the top teams in the Sangamo Conference, as well as the state of Illinois. The team is excited and ready for the season to come around so they can begin what is hoped to be a special season of basketball for the Pleasant Plains Cardinals.
Braxton Lanier and Taylor Staff
-The Cardinal
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