By Jason McDaniel
Chronicle correspondent
Seven Lakes made quite the first impression last season, winning an undefeated District 17-5A championship in its inaugural Class 5A campaign.
Seven Lakes sophomore Jaylon Jones, left, is one of three sophomores that the Spartans will be counting on this season as they defend their District 17-5A championship. Photo by Bob Levey/For the Chronicle
And Spartans coach Dan Miller says his squad may be more talented this season.
“We really liked our team this year,” Miller said. “We can be as good if not a little better than last year.”
The Spartans opened practice Oct. 28 and had four days of work last week with all 12 of their players, none of whom play football. They’ll have four seniors, four juniors and four sophomores.
“We live on defense so we’re working hard on our man-to-man defense, and then we’re just trying to find out where everyone fits because we have a lot of new guys,” Miller said.
They graduated post Anthony Kendrick, their leading scorer last season, and Michael Newberry, who helped them go 29-8 overall and 10-0 in district, adding a title at the Katy ISD Classic.
“We’re going to miss (Kendrick) a lot, especially his scoring and clutch play,” Miller said. “I don’t know if we can make up for some of the things he could do with one person, but overall the talent of the team this year is a little bit higher, so it’s going to be by committee.”
The Spartans are talented and young. They’ll likely start three sophomores, two who started as freshmen last year: power forward Jaylon Jones (6-foot-4) and first-team all-district point guard Trey Pinkney (5-9).
The other sophomore is 6-4 center/forward Erick Roberson, who moved in from Cy Lakes.
Senior Peter Erni (6-5), the Spartans’ third-leading scorer a year ago, is back, along with junior forward Ryan Syberson.
Erni will move from guard to small forward this season but can play every position but center. Syberson was hurt most of last season but is expected to be one of their top players off the bench this season.
They’ll also get a huge boost off the sub-varsity teams, which won four district championships and combined with the varsity squat to go 45-5 last season. The junior varsity team finished 27-4.
Junior shooting guard Princeton Onwas (6-3) was the leader on that JV team. He’s an athletic player who can dunk, shoot the 3 and play great perimeter defense. Miller expects him to turn quite a few heads.
The Spartans scrimmage Chavez this weekend and Dekaney and Westfield next weekend before opening the season Nov. 17 at home against Langham Creek.