Carmi White County’s Basketball Varsity Squads are preparing to go to battle this winter. Both teams are skippered by the Wolff brothers, Kevin and Clinton. Kevin Wolff will lead 19 players into action for the boys team while Clinton, in his first year at the helm of the girls basketball team, will field a troop of 14 girls. Both men gave previews of their teams at the Carmi Kiwanis Club meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The Boys basketball team will only have one player back from last year that experienced significant minutes in Ethan Mahon, who averaged just over 5 points a game. Including Mahon, Kevin Wolff reports he has 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 7 Sophomores and 6 Freshmen. The team is filled with talent according to Wolff, but they’re untested and he’s therefore not sure what to expect from the team. He’s calling them a work in progress at this time,but says it’s a good group that’s pretty quiet and puts in a lot of effort so far. Wolff says he expects Edwards County and Fairfield to be the cream of the crop in the Black Diamond East this year.
The schedule for CWC Boys Basketball gets underway on November 20th. The Bulldogs will host Gallatin County at the friendly confines of McDougal-Evers Gymnasium. They’ll travel to the DuQuoin Tip Off Tournament the week following Thanksgiving and compete in the Eldorado Holiday Tournament December 27th – 29th. This year’s Carmi Invitational Tournament is a week earlier than usual this year and will be held January 14th – 19th with games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday along with two games on Saturday. Also of note, the IHSA will be honoring the boys program on Tuesday, December 4th. The team reached the 1,500 win plateau last year and when teams reach certain milestones, the Illinois High School Association makes it a point to make the trip and recognize the team. Former coaches and players will be part of the festivities also.
Clinton Wolff joked that this being his first year coaching girls, he’d learned a lot about himself over the last couple weeks. His first campaign will be a challenge most likely considering about 60% of last year’s offense graduated with 2 seniors last spring. He’ll rely on 2 Seniors returning as well as 2 Juniors that saw varsity time coming back. Those 4 players will be joined by 3 Sophomores and 7 Freshman girls. Wolff says Hamilton County and Fairfield, who have combined for the last 5 Black Diamond Girls Conference Titles, will again be the toughest opponents for the Lady Bulldogs.
Coach Clinton Wolff will be the guest on the Saturday Morning Sports Show with Jason Craig this weekend at 9am. Coach Kevin Wolff will be the guest the following Saturday, November 17th. The show airs on both 92.1 WROY and AM 1460 as well as 97.3 WRUL.
