BLUE JAYS READY TO TAKE FLIGHT

Chris Winkler enters his first season as Oak Ridge's basketball coach optimistic that his Blue Jays will be able to get up and down the floor in a hurry in order to make life tough on the opposition.

"I'm excited about the season and pretty optimistic," said Winkler, an assistant with the Blue Jays last year. "Everybody has worked hard and improved a lot. I think our speed and quickness will be pretty good. I think we'll be able to push the ball up and down the floor."

One concern for Winkler is that two of his key seniors will miss the early part of the season.

"We'll be young, especially starting out. I'll probably start one senior and four juniors," he said. "But once we get everybody back, I think we'll be all right."

Winkler will be counting on two returning seniors from last year's 8-16 team, 6-foot-2 Matt Pruesser, the squad's top returning scorer at about 10 points a game, and 6-4 Josh Welsh, who will miss the first several games.

"We're expecting Matt to step up and pick up a lot of the scoring," Winkler said. "We're also looking for good things from Josh once he gets back with us."

Four seniors who were not on the team last year also figure into the mix: 6-4 Tom Frentzel, who has a broken hand and will miss the first several weeks of the season; 6-footers Greg Wibbenmeyer and Travis Ponder; and 5-9 Rob Langraf.

Winkler will be looking for plenty of punch from several juniors, including 6-foot Brent Schreiner, 6-1 Darren Hahs, 6-3 Eric Hobeck and Nick Friese and 5-8 Adam Pavelka.

"The juniors have all been playing together for a long time and we'll be counting on them," said Winkler. "They all played some varsity last year and some played quite a bit. Having that experience should help us."

Winkler said he will particularly be looking for Schreiner to help run the Blue Jays' fast break.

"Brent is quick and he can really push the ball," said the coach. "He'll help us out a lot."

Oak Ridge opens the season next week in the Woodland Tournament. Winkler doesn't know what to expect there because the Blue Jays will be missing Welsh and Frentzel but he eventually hopes to field a solid squad.

"We'll be a little thin for the tournament, but once we get everybody back I think we'll be able to do pretty well."