Notre Dame welcomes New Madrid challenge

Notre Dame will battle New Madrid on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Notre Dame Regional High School.

The Bulldogs are coming off a win over Charleston in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament third-place game, avenging two prior losses to the Blue Jays this season.

First-year head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer and his team are still growing and a major test will be their next game against the New Madrid County Central Eagles.

The Bulldogs are currently 4-6, however, they have faced some serious competition to start the year. Losses to Sikeston, Park Hills Central and Cape Central are certainly nothing to be disappointed about as all three of those teams are either state-ranked or receiving votes to be state-ranked.

The Eagles are off to a hot start, with their only loss coming against Sikeston in the SEMO Conference Tournament championship. Most recently, the Eagles won the Poplar Bluff Showdown championship and defeated Kennett in their first conference game. The main struggle for the Bulldogs will be New Madrid seniors Jadis Jones and B.J. Williamson, players Eagles head coach Dontre Jenkins said take some pressure off him.

“Some of the stuff that I see, they see also, so they’re correcting the other guys before I even get a chance to do it,” Jenkins said. “Or if something’s going on that I don’t see, they step up as leaders and seniors and take care of it before it gets to me. That helps out a lot, especially with the coaching staff, when you’ve got good senior leaders on the team and the younger guys look up to them.”

Coach Brinkmeyer is not worried about his team’s record and instead is focused on competing and getting better.

“As a basketball coach, if you're focused on record, you're focusing on the wrong thing," Brinkmeyer said. "You got to focus on getting better every single day. The goal is at the end of the year to be the best team you are and because when you come to district time, everyone's 0-0.”

The Bulldogs start almost all upperclassmen but center Hudson Dennis stands out as the lone freshman. Hudson has recently become a decent inside scorer, putting up double-figures against both Woodland and Cape Central.

"He is a great athlete, great kid," Brinkmeyer said. “He's learning what it takes to be a physical center in the Southeast Missouri area. Every day, he's taking a step forward in the right direction, and the best thing about him is he has a great attitude and works hard and that makes it easy to coach. We're just excited to see what he can do in four years, hopefully, if he continues to work like this."