First Day of Practice

The time has come.
Official practice for high schools in the state of Missouri begins today, thus kicking off what should be another exciting prep basketball season.
It was a banner year in 2009 with four area high schools bringing home state championships. Some were expected while some were quite surprising.
It all makes for what will be another interesting and heart-stopping year of prep basketball in St. Louis as we open up a new decade.
Chaminade won its first state title in basketball when it brought home the boys Class 5 state crown. All-American junior guard Bradley Beal (pictured) is back with a strong nucleus of players to see if the Red Devils can accomplish the repeat, but it will not be easy with several other good area teams on the horizon such as CBC, Webster Groves, Hazelwood Central, Oakville (a Final Four participant in 2009), McCluer, McCluer North and many others. Columbia Rock Bridge looms as another big threat from the middle of the state.
St. Francis Borgia added another state title to the school's trophy case when the Knights won the Class 4 state championship. The Knights also won state titles in 1993, '94, 98, 2006 and last year. Seniors Nathan Scheer and Tyler Ressel are back for one more run at the gold.
Maplewood-Richmond Heights went back-to-back in 2008 and 2009 with Class 3 state titles behind the magnificent Bryant Allen. The Blue Devils will have to attempt their three-peat without the talented Allen, who is now at Minnesota. One team looking to upend them is Whitfield, who finished second to Maplewood in the state tournament last year. The Warriors return all of their key players, including top player Julian Johnson, plus they regain the services of 6'6" shooter Alex Rudd, who missed the entire 2009 campaign with a knee injury.
The fourth state championship team from St. Louis was the girls from Cardinal Ritter, who shocked the state in winning its first state title at the Class 3 tournament. The Lions won't sneak up on anybody this year, but they return some good players in senior Hazaria Washington and Breanna McCullough.
As for the large school girls, perennial powers St. Joseph's Academy and Incarnate Word are ready to go once again with talented teams while Nerinx Hall and Fort Zumwalt West also have a good nucleus of players returning.
On the Ill. side, look for Breese Central to make another deep run in the state playoffs with a loaded cast back from its Supersectional qualifier.
As for the big schools, look for another battle royals among the Southwesterern Conference schools where anybody is capable of beating anybody. On the girls side, Belleville Althoff looks strong with its Division I backcourt of Jazmin Hill (committed to SIU-Edwardsville) and Jordyne Crunk (committed to Eastern Illinois).
Hang on folks. It's going to be another good one.