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Show Coach Reid Reflects on Season I ' ' "" s J . l r. i & ( h - f " Brace Reid Park City high school has not had a winning basketball or football team in years, but this year a traditional loser was turned around with the help of a new coach in his first year in charge of a basketball program. The Park High Miners finished the season with 15-11 record, took fourth place in their region and went on to the state tournament in Provo. Although they had a disappointing and sometimes frustrating showing in the tournament, tourn-ament, Park City's energetic young coach, Bruce Reid, was happy with his team's performance perform-ance this season as he spoke with the Record in a post season interview. "At the beginning of the season, I didn't know how we would do in competition with other teams, but I wanted to eliminate discipline problems and instill pride and cohesiveness in the team," said Reid. "I think that took place." The task was not an easy one. Reid began the season with few returning players from last season and a team that had finished last year in a last-place tie in their region with the Utah School of the Deaf. "This was the first season over 500 in many years," said Reid. "Obviously, that is a large improvement." The team began the season last November with a loss to powerful Morgan, last year's 2-A state champs, but proved they were for real by destroying rival North Summit in their second game of pre-season by almost a 50 point margin. They capped off their pre-sea-on with a strong second place finish in the first annual Park City Invitational tournament. The highlight of the tournament was a thrilling one point win over the South Summit Wildcats, who later qualified for the 1-A championship title match and finished second in the state. The Miners started the regular season by dominating Tintic, but fell in overtime to St. Joseph, the only team in their division they failed to beat, in mid-January. They upset Dugway on - the Mustangs' home court to make headlines in high school sports coverage throughout the state, but were weakened when they lost two nights later to Wendover. Park City gained momentum by knocking off USD and Tintic a second time, but lost key match-ups with St. Joe and Dugway to put their season in jeapordy. The team had to out-duel Wendover in two exciting February Febru-ary games, over a total of four overtime periods, to claim third place in their division, and appeared to be hitting their stride in the region 11 tournament earlier this month with big wins against Manila and South Rich, which clinched them a berth in the state tournament. The Miners fell again to St. Joseph for the top spot in the region round-robin, however, and sufferred a number of misfor tunes while winning only one out of three games in the state tournament two weeks ago. According to Coach Reid, the season offered three "high" points. The first highlight was the win over South Summit in the pre-season invitational tournament. tourna-ment. "It made the kids believers," he said. "It made them feel they could be competitive with anybody." any-body." The second highlight, he said, was overcoming Dugway on their home court and the recognition of being the first team in several years to do so. Finally, beating South Rich to earn a trip to the state tournament was the crowning moment of the season. "I enjoyed that game the most," said Reid. "As far as competition goes, my goal for the season was to make the state tournament." The low point of the season was the team's loss to Dugway at home in mid-February. "It came to a point where the kids were losing confidence," said Reid. "There were internal problems." To help remedy the situation, Reid called the team together for a "long discussion." Speaking with "quiet firmness," the coach instituted changes in their play and the team played more cohesively in their crucial games with Wendover and in the region round-robin. Overall, Reid called his first year as a head coach "a learning experience." Among the lessons learned during the season, said Reid, was that more time should be spent on man-to-man defense as an alternative alter-native to the Miners' usually effective "rubber band" zone. Above all, however, Reid said he learned "never to let the team get out of control," as it did in the crucial loss to Dugway. Looking ahead, Reid said the prospects for next year are "infinite." The team will lose only two starters - Brad Goff and Todd Hunter and will have the services of this year's freshman football stand-out Mike Gebauer, who missed basketball season this year because of a knee injury. Reid said a weight program will be instituted "to put meat on their bones" and the returning players will be encouraged to work out year-round and take advantage of summer camps to improve their play. Unlike past years, the high school gym will be made available year-round for workouts. With several players who saw increasing amounts of game time during the season, including sophomore Marty Cowin and junior Jerry Johnson, ready to step into the starting line-up, Reid said he anticipates a more well balanced team with a stronger bench than this year's squad. The Miners' two leading scorers, juniors Howard Davidson and Dave Radford, will both return, as will steady forward Tim King. "Our depth next year will be a great deal better," said Reid. "I won't have to have heart failure every time one of our starters is in foul trouble." Reid stressed the importance of off-season training, however. "Hopefully, the players will be aware that to be an ultimate winner," he said, "the pursuit of excellence will require more effort than they've ever had to make before." As a "swan song" to their departure, Reid praised the three seniors leaving the team. Brad Goff, the Miners' point guard and ball handler "provided a great deal of leadership on the court," Reid said. Coaches in the region agreed that Goff was the "best ball handler in the conference," he said. "He will be sorely missed." Center Todd Hunter, who had played only one year of basketball as a freshman prior to this year, "improved as much as anyone was able to in his position," Reid said. "Hunter did as well as I could have dreamed," he said. "He helped us in a lot of situations and was an integral part of the team." Brad Dearden, who saw frequent fre-quent action as a substitute, stood out as a "dedicated team player," said Reid. "I admired him for that.' |