North Callaway boys basketball believes it can compete in its conference and district.

The Thunderbirds have plenty of juniors and seniors returning with varsity experience who can lead the team to an eighth straight double-digit winning season but hopefully the first winning season since three years ago.

Head coach Matt Miller said the progress North Callaway has made in preseason practice has been faster than in the last couple years.

“It’s not that you can never have freshmen or sophomores at that level, but it’s really an experienced group,” Miller said. “We’re hitting the ground running.”

Austin Brown and Dalton Brewer are senior guards who have played varsity since sophomore year, Zac Craghead is a senior post player who can be a starter and reserve this year, and juniors Jamarion Glover and Jake Blevins are North Callaway sole returning all-conference players. Glover and Blevins are the team’s leading scorers from the post and perimeter, respectively.

Brodee Biggers is a big and strong guard who played varsity minutes last season and should have a role with the team this year, according to Miller. He said juniors Liam Peck, Coltyn O’Neal and Tristan Petty should each have more opportunities on varsity after mostly playing junior varsity a season ago, and seniors Tucker Sheets and Ajay Roberts can also be reserves.

“There’s a lot of versatility,” Miller said. “It’s going to be hard to pinpoint, ‘OK, we’re just going to do this.’ We can be versatile on a lot of nights depending on who we’re playing or how we’re playing or who’s playing for us on the floor.”

Miller said North Callaway can go big with some 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-5 kids in its lineup or it can go smaller. While there are many possible offenses and defenses a coach could use, Miller said he still wants to keep it simple and apply what’s best to his talent.

To be better than “competitively below .500” as Miller has called it, he said North Callaway needs to win more close games. North Callaway’s points allowed average has been higher than its scoring average each of the last two years.

“A lot of starts on the defensive end,” Miller said. “That’s been a point of emphasis. Our leaders and upperclassmen really take that to heart at practice – having energy all the time on the defensive end and finishing with the rebound.”

Montgomery County was a stacked team a season ago, but it is a new season. Miller said Montgomery County graduated seven seniors so he believes the Eastern Missouri Conference is “wide open.”

The EMO conference is a “basketball-driven conference,” according to Miller’s observations of coaching the conference for more than a decade. Miller said the bottom and middle teams in the standings can still give “a fit every night.”

“On paper, not that it means anything right now in November, we have the potential to be one of the top two or three teams in the conference,” Miller said. “The boys sense we have a good group that can have a good season, but the outcomes will take care of themselves.”