Coming off the best two-year stretch in program history, the Platte County boys’ basketball team will have to replace five talented seniors that took the Pirates to two consecutive district championships.
Platte County senior Chandavian Bradley is the only returning starter from last winter.
Winning 44 games and only losing 11 in the last two years, the five seniors from the 2022 class will be tough to replace. Platte County hasn’t won a district title in more than a decade, but it finished as the runner-up in 2021 and 2022.
“We lost an awful lot of talent, but what we’re trying to draw from the last two seasons is the practice intensity, competitiveness and the willingness and understanding of how to practice and compete at a high level,” Platte County head coach Rick Hodge said. “We’re hoping this group can take away from our successes from the last two years.”
Senior post Chandavian Bradley – who started last year and has committed to play basketball at the University of Tennessee – is the Pirates’ top player, coming off a junior campaign where he averaged 12.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and two steals. Parker Amos, Judah Vignery and Boston Wahlert saw some time off the bench last season and will see increased minutes this season.
“Judah does a good job of shooting the ball and scoring so we’re going to rely on him from the perimeter to provide us with that. Boston has the ability to shoot it and drive it a little bit, so he can give us some different tools on our offensive side that complements Chandavian,” Hodge said.
The Pirates are entering the season with uncertainty on who will be in the starting lineup with a strong chance of different players being on the floor to start games. Sophomore Jayden Peterson, junior Connor Currence and seniors Trevor Redding and Ky Oats are all competing for minutes.
“In the last couple of years, we had enough players coming back that we would go into the season knowing where we’re at, what we need to instill with these kids and how we need to improve with this group. It’s just a little bit different this year; we have pieces, we’re just not sure how those pieces are going to fit together yet because of the inexperience that we have coming back,” Hodge said.