PARIS- The 2022-23 season was another season of change for the Paris girls basketball program. Former Eagles assistant Jonathan Vire was promoted to the position of head coach, and a veteran Lady Eagles team quickly made the adjustments to their new coach. After two previous seasons of struggling in conference play, the Lady Eagles made the Region 1 tournament in February of 2023. Paris lost a close first round game in the regionals to Flippin, but the program was back on track in a positive direction.

Coach Vire has invested in the structural components of the program to build pride and ownership with the players. A newly revamped locker room, practice gear, etc., have been well-received by the players, and from casual outside observance, fans can’t but help to notice the pride in the program continuing to grow.

RNN Sports had the opportunity to visit with Coach Vire to discuss the upcoming season and to share his thoughts with our readers. The Lady Eagles open their season next Friday in West Fork when they play in the Duel at the Dome Invitational.

We started our conversation by me asking Coach to give our readers a quick rundown of this year’s team. Coach Vire began by saying, “We have three starters back and all three are juniors, Annabelle (Perry), Kaydence (Freeman), and Preslee (Bowman). Then we are going to have Makalie (Carter) as a senior, Abby Yarnell as a sophomore who stepped up big time for us last year. Then we are going to have Lauren Reames, Claire Zeiler and we are looking at getting them ready to play after volleyball season. They are athletic and can help us out. Sandy Privett, Piper Baumgartner, Kendri Martines…so, we are going to have a little bit of depth, guard-wise. That is who we have coming back, and I am looking forward to playing. In my first year here, we had six on the roster.”

Since this interview, Lauren Reames has incurred an injury at the end of volleyball season and may not be available for the first few weeks of the season.

But this year’s Lady Eagles will have more depth than they have had in recent seasons, and there will be a lot of athletes on the roster. It will take some transition time for those players coming over from the volleyball team, but Coach Vire will have more options from the bench as well as more participants in practice to prepare for games throughout the season. On the day of the interview, Coach Vire indicated that there will be 11 players on the varsity roster.

And the future is very bright for the program. This year’s varsity roster is still young and will have several players returning next year, and the junior high program is loaded in both numbers and talent. The junior high will contribute heavily to the program starting in 2024-25.

Volleyball season is now over, and Coach Vire has his full complement of players available, minus the injured Lauren Reames. Unofficially, we hope that Lauren is available by the end of November.

The program is coming off of a good year where the program returned to the regionals in post season play. I asked Coach about what he thought this year’s team could achieve, and Coach very quickly answered, “I think we can make it back to the regionals again. We are shooting to make the state tournament, but I think we definitely have a shot at going to the regionals. Our conference is going to be Cossatot River, it is theirs to lose. They did not lose any players off of last year’s team with the exception of the McClain girl. But they have everyone else back. I think it is them and then Charleston, and us…all of us kind of in a 1-2-3 mix. Booneville could be up there, Hackett could be right there, but I think we are up there and in position to make another run for the regionals.”

Coach Vire continues to make investments into the game to promote ownership of the players for their program. “One thing we did this summer was we got some pictures of the girls playing put up in the locker room. I asked Jayden (Wells) to come in and sign hers, Brailey (Forst) came in and signed hers. I am going to start a senior “Wall of Fame” to just make the locker room a little more “homey” where they see themselves, making it more like an “us” kind of thing, rather than it just being a locker room when we walk in. Then, with the practice gear, we did that last year (upgraded the team’s practice gear with players input) to make us look good, feel good, and play good. This year, we are getting shooting shirts so that the entire team has shooting shirts for the season (worn during pregame). Our new team moto that we are running with this season and until I ever leave the program is “Don’t Quit”. We are having “Don’t Quit” put on them (the shooting shirts). So, every time we are on the floor, that has been our moto. In the weight room, we say, “Don’t Quit.” It is all about getting that mental mind set.”

Team culture is everything with teams in today’s sports world, and under Coach Vire’s leadership, the Lady Eagles are investing heavily in team core values and gaining a competitive mental advantage over their opponents.

As we continued our conversation, I asked Coach if he was going to change his approach or philosophy with the team’s play this season based upon this year’s talent and roster. Coach explained, “Offensively, it’s going to kind of be the same, we’re going to do that dribble-drive with Annabelle to try to get her to the rim. Kaydence can get to the rim, Abby can get to the rim, so, we’ll stick with the dribble-drive. Defensively, we’ll probably stick with a lot of zone. Especially if we can get like Claire and Lauren out there. We can be really long (arm span) out there, so we’ll probably stick with zone. We will probably try to stretch the floor as much as we can with the offense. I’m looking at maybe pressing on defense a little more because we’re going to have a little more depth this year. We pressed some last year, especially with our 1-3-1 defense. We may stick with that, or we may look at some different zone press defenses. But it’s going to kind of be the same set up.

On the coaching front for the Lady Eagles, perhaps the biggest news for the 2023-24 season will be the addition of former Lamar basketball great Lakyn Sanders to the Paris bench as a volunteer coach. According to Coach, “We got Lakyn Sanders to come in and volunteer right now, this semester. Just senior high right now; and then we hope to get her internship (in college) moved to here by mid-January. She graduates from the University of the Ozarks in May. So, if we can get her internship moved here in January, she’ll be with us full time as a student assistant coach for the season. So, that is who we have helping this season. Coach Tencleve (Andrew Tencleve, boys head coach) will be sitting on the bench with us during games. It’s still kind of a process to get it all worked out. But Lakyn has been coming to practices for the past three weeks. That is a huge, huge asset getting her and having her being able to help.”

To wrap up our conversation, I asked Coach Vire if he had anything else he would like to share with our readers and the Paris fans. Coach concluded by saying, “We lost a lot from last year’s team with Jayden and Brailey. Replacing then early is going to be a test. So, early on, we may look like we are struggling as we try to figure some things out. But just stick with us and we’ll get it rolling. I think we will be fun to watch this year just like we were a season ago. So, if we look bad early, don’t give up on us!”

Coach’s last statement was said with some humor. But Paris fans can compare this year’s team with the volleyball team that just finished in the top eight in the state. That team entered the season seeking to find the right combination of players and its rhythm, but, we knew they would continue to improve, and they surely did. From my perspective, I expect the same dynamic from this year’s Lady Eagles basketball team. In fact, I expect this team to be very dangerous as the season moves toward the post-season.

I would like to thank both Jonathan Vire and Andrew Tencleve for giving of their valuable time this close to the season to share their remarks in their interviews with RNN Sports. They are two coaches who are passionate about basketball and highly devoted to their players. We wish both the very best of success for the upcoming season!

PARIS- High school basketball season has begun across Arkansas, and for the Paris Eagles boys program, the schedule begins on Monday, November 6th.

RNN Sports interviewed the head boys and girls basketball coaches at Paris last week to provide our readers with a glimpse inside their programs and to preview their upcoming seasons.

Paris head boys coach, Andrew Tencleve, arrived in the spring of 2022 from Cedarville to take over the Eagles’ boys basketball program. It was a busy summer for Tencleve as he balanced working with a handful of players in the summer while others were playing travel ball, or in some cases, injured or sick and missing summer workouts.

But as the fall approached, Tencleve began to put his team together, and by this time last year, the Eagles were off and running under their new coach. The 2022-23 season was a rollercoaster season in some respects, but the Eagles finished the regular season as the number two seed from the conference and eventually saw their season end in the first round of the regional tournament against top seed Bergman.

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Coach Tencleve over the phone to get his thoughts on the upcoming season so we could share them with our readers. I started by asking him to give me an overview of his team for this season. Coach began by saying, “We only have one returning starter and that is Konnor Edwards. He is a two-year starter at the point position. He is somebody we are going to look to for leadership, and we are probably going to lean on him quite a bit on both ends of the floor. So, we are going to need him to display the poise and moxy that comes with being a senior that has played as many minutes as he has. The only other player we have back from last year is Maddox Watts. He is also a senior, and last year was his first year to play basketball since the seventh grade. He is a very good rebounder and is very good on the ball as a defender. He is going to be our key defensively and we have to keep him on the floor. We hope to get more points out of him this year and to be a good screener for us.” Edwards was an All-Conference selection last season.

So, when you look down the Eagles’ roster and you move passed the two returning seniors, the Eagles youth becomes apparent. Sophomore Kort Tencleve, son of the coach, came on late last year as a freshman playing after the conclusion of the junior high season. Kort Tencleve added good outside shooting efficiency to the Eagles’ offense. I asked Coach Tencleve about Kort, and he replied by saying, “We have eight sophomores and Kort was one that spent time with the high school late last season. We are still in “wait and see mode” with him to make sure he gets cleared (medically) to play. But yeah, he is somebody that we need to score a lot of points for us and take a lot of shots for us. He also needs to be a great screener just due to the fact that people are going to key on him. He will help us handle the basketball, help with our spacing, and is somebody that we feel like will be OK defensively.”

Since our interview with Coach Tencleve, Kort was cleared medically to begin the season. That is certainly good news for him, his family, and for Paris fans.

By all appearances from last season, the Paris backcourt should be in good hands with both Edwards and Tencleve. And in addition to the defense and rebounding that Maddox Watts will add, the Eagles will be looking for two sophomores to fill in the last two spots in the low post. Coach Tencleve added, “Another sophomore that we are really looking at is Cutler Haller. He is a little undersized for his position, but he is tough and physical and gives great effort. He can make open shots which will be key for us. Jayden Carter, another sophomore, started in the back court last season on the junior high team. He is somebody that has a developing shot and is also a good on the ball defender. He will be relied upon to give us minutes in the back court. Sophomore Brady Owens kind of battled a knee injury last season in junior high, is a good athlete that has some length that we really need. We are going to need him to develop his shot as well. This summer, he was a really good rebounder, and we will need that too.”

Coach remarked that the Eagles’ backcourt is a little undersized but handles the basketball well. “I feel very, very confident in our back court. Front court is very inexperienced and undersized, but I think there will be good players in that group; whether they are ready or not to start the season may be another thing. Three of those guys are playing football, so we have been limited in the offseason this fall with what we can do in practice. But we will just take some time (early in the schedule) to see who we are.”

With the change in personnel this season, which is a factor that most high school coaches contend with due to graduation, transfers, injuries, etc., I asked Coach if he thought this year’s team would change his philosophy on how he likes to play offense and defense. Coach said, “Philosophically, no. There are some tweaks that will have to be made due to our lack of size. Defensively, we are going to have to provide help in the post area, and you kind of expose yourself to some things when you do that, but when you are as small as we are, it is not negotiable. Offensively, we played like this a lot in the past; going to have to spread the floor out and make basketball plays. We are going to have to get shots, put the ball in the hole and make sure that our better shooters are taking the most shots. I think we will be able to score if we play together, and it is going to be this way for this group all season.”

Depth is a concern and is also an unknown factor at this point before the season. Again, due to younger players still playing football, it will not be fully apparent who can provide minutes off the bench the event of foul trouble to one or more of the starters. “We can handle a little foul trouble in the back court, but it is the front court where it gets a little tough. We just don’t have enough size there. Maybe one of the low post players can have a little foul trouble, but we can’t afford multiple guys in the front court to get into foul trouble.”

Booneville is the favorite to win the 3A-4 boys conference. When I asked Coach for his thoughts, he shared, “I think it is Booneville (as the favorite) with what they bring back. I think they lost maybe two kids. They have a really, really talented junior class, very athletic. They have a good senior guard. So, they have all of the pieces.”

Challenging Booneville this season may be the Hackett Hornets. Coach spoke of Hackett by saying, “They (Hackett) should be as good or better than they have been the past few years. They have everybody back from last year. They have a good senior guard and a good junior post player. To me, on paper, those (Booneville and Hackett) are the two that should be penciled-in those spots. We are really young, Charleston is really young, Cossatot River has got some talent, so, we are just going to have to wait and see.”

Paris will begin the 2023-24 season on Friday, November 10th when the Eagles host Waldron. Watch for coverage of the Eagles’ season on RNN Sports in both our Logan / Franklin County Edition weekly newspaper, and on our website at residentnewsnetwork.com