It is almost time to bring some high school sports back indoors.
And the Gentry High Rams basketball team will begin to do just that when the 2023-24 season opens next Tuesday night.
In the first of three consecutive home dates to open the new season, the Rams will play host to the Humphreys County High Cowboys next Tuesday.
Tipoff for this game against the squad from Belzoni is set for 7:30 p.m.
Next Thursday will then offer another opportunity for basketball fans to enjoy a game at home when Clarksdale High comes to town for a 7:30 p.m. match-up.
As for Gentry Head Coach Marlon Dorsey and his squad, the Rams return only two starters back from last season’s 14-15 campaign.
Those two returning starters the Rams will rely on are both 6’2” guards in the form of Marhkeel Blackmon and Zacarius Johnson.
However, Coach Dorsey is optimistic about his team primarily due to “shooting and dribbling skill sets. We should have better shooting and ball-handling this year as well as playing with more confidence.”
Coach Dorsey is also upbeat about his team’s style of play which will feature “An up-tempo offense with a lot of pressing and trapping on defense. It should be an exciting brand of basketball.”
However, concerns that Coach Dorsey harbors include the fact that “We will be playing in the toughest region in the state, and they will have more players taller and bigger than we are.”
Included in that “toughest region in the state” are defending state champion Yazoo City High as well as Canton High and Holmes County Central High of Lexington, both of whom went deep into last season’s state playoffs.
The Rams will be plowing through a 2023-24 schedule which includes 25 games as well as post-Christmas tournament play in the Hattiesburg Classic.
