CUBA – The Cuba High School boy’s basketball team will have a different look and scoring leaders this season, but many will be familiar faces.

Cuba returns a roster consisting of five juniors and five seniors but has to retool after losing five seniors including two 1,000-point scorers, Jesse Elrod and Preston Heads. Elrod, currently a freshman on the Missouri Baptist University team, was the Class 4 District 3 player of the year, Gasconade Valley Conference Player of the Year and earned first team All-District player while Heads was a first team all-district selection. Although this year’s team may not have the scoring punch of Elrod and Heads, head coach DJ Dace said that this year’s team has depth to compete throughout the season.

“I wouldn’t say we have another duo like that, but I think as a team, especially our top five to eight guys, we can all score on a much more consistent basis than our team could last year,” Dace said.

The Wildcats are coming off a 13-12 season in which they were the number one seed in the Class 4 District Tournament, and lost 58-49 in the semifinals to Salem.

Dace is entering his fifth year as Cuba’s head coach and said that he hopes that his team’s depth and defense will help drive up his team’s scoring as a whole. “You look at our scoring, we’ve been in that 49-50 point range. I would like for us to be more at the 60-65 where our philosophy is to play defense and press.”

Part of playing pressure defense is being in tip top physical condition, an aspect of his team that Dace has established immediately when practice started on Monday. 

“We attack that first week with conditioning. They run a lot just to get in shape. These guys expect that we’re a defensive team. So our philosophy is to be the best in shape team.”

Part of the conditioning is transitioning from football to basketball shape. Cuba has eight players who also played football, and will have to retrain their bodies after their season ended just three days before the first day of basketball practice. Dace and assistant Kaleb Cason, who is Cuba’s head football coach, also had to quickly flip the switch from the gridiron to the court. Because their coaching principles are similar for both sports, Dace said that his duel sport athletes already understand his expectations and core values.

“Working with the same kids, it really brings us closer together,” Dace said. “So there’s a lot of things that I don’t have to teach them, as far as how to be a good teammate, how to do things the right way, because they’re already getting it from us. We have the same mentality, so that creates some consistency.” 

Cuba will return senior leaders Noah Halbert, Gavin Robinson. Felipe Valadez, Ryan Thompson and Cameron Carnal along with junior contributors Seth Adderley, Ethan Noltkamper, AJ Flores, Braden Gipson and Zane Brown.  

With last year’s scoring leaders gone to graduation, Dace highlighted multiple players he’s expecting big years from, starting with senior guard Carnal. Carnal, Cuba’s leading wide receiver on the football team, has impressed Dace with his physical growth and willingness to take on a leadership role.

“He (Carnal) had a good football year for us as the top wide receiver and that’s gonna help his confidence this year. But he’s really grown a lot,” Dace said. “I think he’s grown over the summer. He gained about 20 pounds and grew probably two or three inches. He was kind of a role player last year, kind of the shadows of the teams we had, and this year, he’s really stepped up to take a leadership role. I can see him being Conference Player of the Year, or even District Player of the Year, depending on where we land.”

Dace also spotlighted Gipson, who has started since he was a freshman.

“He (Gipson) does a lot of things really well. He’s a great leader and he will compete with Cameron (Carnal) as the top player.”

Dace beamed when talking about his point guards, juniors Noltkamper and Flores. “They’re dogs and they have high basketball IQ’s,” Dace said. Noltkamper was Cuba’s leading rusher and touchdown scorer and Dace said that his athleticism, speed and energy translates from the field to the court. “Ethan (Noltkamper) plays like he plays football; really hard.”

Dace also mentioned sophomore Caleb Brown as an ascending player to look out for.

“He’s (Brown) a heck of an athlete, and he’s only a sophomore. He can jump, dunk with two hands. He may have a rough beginning of the season, just because of his lack of experience. But he really grew a lot this summer, maturely and basketball wise, and he’s just working his butt off right now. I think after he gets a couple game starts under his belt, he’s really gonna blossom.”

Dace added that although his team also lost length from the five departed seniors, this team has to make up for it with defensive tenacity. “We’re not as long as we were last year, but these guys are a little scrappier,” Dace said.

The Wildcats will begin their season by hosting the Black and Gold scrimmage at 5 p.m. on Nov. 15 and the Cuba Jamboree at 5 p.m. on Nov. 17 where the team will play two quarters against Linn, Newburg and Calvary Lutheran. The schedule of those games is listed below. Cuba will then take the three-plus hour bus ride to New Madrid to compete in the Riverbend Shootout Classic on Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 against Campbell and West Memphis (Tennessee). The Wildcats will have a heavy road schedule early in the season, playing just one home game in December on Dec. 8 in a matchup against Licking. The Wildcats will play the majority of their home games after the new year. 

Dace said that his team is looking forward to playing in front of the home crowd and thrives off their energy. 

“It gets packed, it gets loud,” Dace said. “It’s just a fun atmosphere and we really feed off our crowd. These guys play with high energy and I coach with high energy so we all feed off each other.”

Cuba Wildcat basketball schedule

Nov. 17 Cuba Jamboree

5 p.m. Calvary Lutheran vs. Cuba

5:30 pm. Linn vs. Calvary Lutheran

6 p.m.  Newburg vs. Linn

6:30 p.m. Newburg vs. Calvary Lutheran

7 p.m.  Cuba vs. Linn

7:30 p.m. Cuba vs. Newburg