By KYLE LUTZ

CAMERON — At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the Cameron boys’ basketball team had to go through some small adjustments. With a brand new coaching staff including Coach Tom Hart at the helm for his first year, the Dragons went out and put together a solid 14-10 record.

“We made some tweaks from the previous years and there was an adjustment period for all the players. But we did have some success,” Hart said. “We won some big ball games last year. But we’re definitely going to miss the three seniors that we lost.”

Two of those seniors were three-year starters in Trey Routt and Ben Hart. Routt was a major contributor as he was a 1,000-point scorer and averaged more than 20 points and grabbed more than 10 rebounds per game. He was also honored with first team All-Valley and All-OVAC and second team all-state. Hart was a four-year letterman and tallied eight points and eight assists per game. Hunter Aston is also gone because of graduation and was the first guard off the bench and had six points per game.

However, the cupboard is not bare when it comes to this year, as the Dragons have seven returning lettermen, including three starters.

“We think we got a solid core that we’ll be able to utilize,” Coach Hart said. “The thing is we’re not looking back, we’re looking forward and taking everything one day at a time. We’ve already outlined our goals for the season, so we have to take it one practice at a time, one game at a time because our schedule is extremely competitive. We got some tough ball games ahead of us. We’re going to be playing against some good teams, some good programs against some great players and some great coaches, so we can’t look past anybody. We just have to take it one opponent at a time.”

Three seniors will be heavily relied on will be Colby Brown (6-foot-5), Robert Milliken (6-5) and Trey Scott (5-10). Brown averaged about six points and five rebounds last season while Milliken scored eight points and eight rebounds a game. Scott returns to the point guard, who several times ended up with the toughest defensive assignment.

“We’re looking for those three to provide leadership for the younger guys, so we are going to lean on them heavily,” Coach Hart said.

Junior Travis Mickey (6-3) also returners to the floor. Like Scott, there were times where he had to take the hardest assignment on defense. Another junior, Aidan Lucey (5-10) returns to the Dragons. Lucey made his impact known when he was on the court in several games, he went off the bench and scored in double figures in key games. Dillon Meintel (6-4), who came out of his shell last spring as he qualified to the state track meet in two hurdling events, will also be looked upon.

Coach Hart is also is giving praise to a handful of his underclassmen.

One seeking some more minutes is Zane Clutter (5-8), who lettered his freshman season and is coming off a great summer. Garrett Scott (6-0) will also be looked up as last year as he played some key varsity minutes in as a freshman in close ball games when the Dragons were in foul trouble. Noah Neely (5-10) a good shooter and ballhandler, and Jessop Broughton (6-0), who Coach Hart thinks was the most improved player from the beginning of last season to the end also returns.

Senior Keith Luff rounds out the varsity roster. Coach Hart is assisted by Matt Burge and Devin Overholt who are both in their second season.

“What we’re looking at is we have some preseason goals to try and improve every day,” Coach Hart said. “And we’re looking at all the games leading up until Christmas Break. We’ve broken our goals down. We got preseason goals, we got goals we want to achieve before the holiday break and once we roll over to the first of the year, we want to look at the rest of the season. With the kids we have coming back, we think we can be competitive with anybody that we play.”