001Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Clearwater Sports Talk podcast. Soon to be the number one sports talk podcast in the world, Kelsey Brothers. We're coming for you. This podcast will feature Lane Mason, our producer, Jacob, and special guest, Coach Jonathan Dytool. Thanks for being here. >> Thanks for having me. [laughter] Um, so yeah, we'll just kick it off with some questions. Um, who are some key returning players you're excited to watch or coach this year? >> The when I'm looking at our roster, um, it's really a complete change of what we had last year, it's going to be a lot of new players. Um, we had a couple people play minutes last year, like um, Austin and James played a handful of minutes. Um Mason obviously was played the most minutes out of anybody returning,
002but he did miss, you know, six games. So hopefully he doesn't miss more this year. Um but those, you know, those guys are looking really good. So, um we're looking forward to getting to game time and seeing what they can do. >> All right, so onto our second question. How has practice been going? Um, I think practice has been going really well. Probably, um, the best of my career so far, I would say my short career here. Um, really it all comes down to is being deliberate in your actions when you practice and actually trying to translate things from we need to do this in game, so we need to practice this certain way. And when I went through and reviewed our practices from the last couple years, it was a lot of random things
003that didn't quite go together cohesively. So, I spent a lot of time uh reviewing practice and going over it to try to give us the best chance at being ready for when the game comes. Um, so I think our practice has been awesome so far. Energy has been really, really good. Um, kids look excited. um like they're ready to play some ball and get into the game. So, see if it translates and keep keep working. >> Awesome. Awesome. So, um what would you say our team identity would be this season? >> Um just, you know, reviewing our practice film, I record all the practices and just watching it back, I mean, it really seems like we're going to be a strong defensive team is what I'm hoping. Um we spent a lot of time on
004it on it in practice um being in helpside talking on ball screens and handoffs and everything and um I really think we can apply a lot of ball pressure and get after teams and um really be a solid defensive team. So I'm looking forward to seeing how we uh how we come out and do all that. >> Awesome. Mason, you want to get the next? >> What is our upcoming schedule going to look like? like what what do you think some of the biggest challenges? [clears throat] It doesn't really have to be related to the schedule, just in general. >> Um well, I think that I mean we play before break in December, we have six games in a short span. That's always a challenge playing um you know, game day off, game day off.
005Um stuff is can be challenging at times. So, I think that'll be a challenge for us um just to stay, you know, in the game and focused on um the game that we're about to play or the game that's coming up shortly in the next day after, you know, one day of practice. So, that's always a challenge. Um you know, obviously we play we play Great Ben coming up. They're a 5A school. They're really strong. So, um, you know, that'll be a that'll be a good test for us to see where we're at comparatively to, you know, some of the some of the top teams in the state last year. So, I'm excited to um see what we can do against some better teams and um show that we've, you know, really been working and
006we've really been, you know, trying to get better and we're looking to execute these things. So, um it'll be interesting when those games roll around and um we play three games at Kingman the next couple days. So, um that's always a challenge, but I looking forward to it. Get just play a lot of games and translate practice over and we should be fine. >> 100%. Um to wrap it up, what are you most excited for this season? Um, I think the thing I'm most excited for is um just seeing seeing the energy and um like want to from the kids is really been exciting for me. Like out of all my years coaching, this is year five in total for me. Um this is the most excited I've been for beginning of a season. Um
007especially first game day. I've, you know, I'm really really excited to show everyone what we can do. I think that um the Clearwater when we play at home um I think our gym can be the loudest gym we play in all year if you know kids come and um support and just yell, you know, not at the other team but cheering for us. Um so I'm really excited to, you know, show the fans and parents that, you know, we're taking steps in the right direction um for this year and upcoming years in the future. just keeping everybody excited for basketball. You know, we're not we're not the old Clearwater basketball that people see and don't worry about. Like we're we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be ball pressure. We're going to be running
008the floor. So, I'm excited to see the shift for for us this year in a in a new year. >> Yeah. Um, well, that pretty much wraps up all the questions we got for you today, but um, tonight is our season opener. Make sure to be there. Be loud. I don't know if this podcast will be out in time, but >> I think he said this was coming out Monday. >> Okay. Well, any home game or away games if you're free, make sure to come support your team, be loud, pack the reservoir, and uh, yeah, go Indian. This a this a heat boy. Bring it. >> [music]