Matt Vines

EAST POINT – Continuous improvement.

It’s a philosophy that a lot of sports teams follow as they aim to get better as a season goes along, especially basketball teams with its core group of players playing football.

But the Riverdale Academy boys basketball team employed that philosophy to the max this past season and will seek to do so again.

The Rebels struggled at times during a 10-14 campaign, but by the end, Riverdale was at its best.
They were a Lee Academy buzzer beater away from upsetting the No. 1 seed in the Class 2A MAIS Tournament.

The Rebels will miss four seniors from that team in Hayden Hillman, Will Jones, Kyle Guillory and Ryder Huddleston.

“All four of those graduating seniors were key contributors, however they also came into the season unexperienced as a group,” said Riverdale coach Ty Jones. “I hope we can do what they did last year and continuously improve throughout the season.

“One saying an old coach told me that I like to use is, ‘At Riverdale, we don’t rebuild, we reload.”

Of course the cupboard isn’t bare from last year’s team. Key football players will switch over to the hard court once the season is finished on the gridiron – including Ashton Almond, Kaidyn Williams, Logan Gryder and Tanner Carlisle.

“I’ll be relying on those older juniors and seniors for their off-court leadership and on-court play,” Jones said. “I believe this team’s strengths will lie on the defensive end of the court, and I think we have the potential to really guard teams and get after them.

“We hope to improve in all aspects of our game throughout the year, as cliché as that might sound.”
Jones will experience his first season as a head varsity coach after serving as Trey Pittman’s assistant and the head junior varsity coach this past season.

Pittman coached both the girls and the boys in his return to Riverdale this past season, but back surgery made leading both teams difficult.

Pittman is coaching just the girls this season, although he’ll remain a valuable resource and sounding board for Jones.

The Riverdale boys will start the season Monday at Mt. Olive Christian on Monday before returning home to face Columbia Christian on Tuesday and Word of God Academy on Thursday.