Very young Heat begin anew

Oh very young what will you bring us this time?

Though not as young as last year, the Hot Springs Lady Savage Heat will again field a very young squad, coach Richard Jackson reports, saying that he has two seniors, eight sophomores and two freshmen on the roster for the 2017-2018 season.

With mostly the same cast of players, the even younger Savage Heat went 7-13 last year. Karly Lawson was a second team District 14C all-conference pick from that team and McKennzie Cannon and Stacy Gray earned 14C honorable mention. Cannon is now a sophomore and Gray one of the Heat’s two seniors.

Lawson, a junior, has transferred to Polson, but Cannon and Gray return to lead the Heat this season.

Jackson says this year’s team is again a little undersized, but that they make up for their shortcomings with hustle and desire. He compared his basketball squad to the Hot Springs volleyball team, with mostly the same players, from last fall. The Heat netters were one of the best teams in District 14C in spite of their lack of tall players.”

“They were a very good team, they were not very big but they made up for that with hard work, they never let you win points, you had to earn them,” he said. “And that’s kind of how I want them to be in basketball, too. We want to be that mentally tough team that nobody wants to play at tournament time.”

Jackson’s twin daughters, Sage and Sydney Jackson, and Brianna Gray, all sophomores, and junior Danielle Cannon return, and along with McKennize Cannon and Stacy Gray, form the nucleus for this year’s team.

The Heat girls open season play at the Tip-Off Tournament in Frenchtown this week, facing Lincoln at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Seeley-Swan at noon Saturday. Hot Springs’ first home game is with Arlee Dec. 16.