Old and New Faces Make Up Festus Boys and Girls Basketball Teams Ahead of 2018-19 Season

(FESTUS) The 2018-19 Festus girls basketball season will begin after Thanksgiving with a home game against Pacific on Thursday, the 29th. Chris Ellis is the new Lady Tigers head man who has been coaching women’s basketball for 35 years.

 
Coach Ellis will have the bulk of last year’s team returning.

 
The Festus Lady Tigers will have some new faces on the varsity squad with Tristin Foulk, a transfer from Chaffee, freshman Kinsey Benack, and freshman Zoe Nichols.

Jason Therrell enters his 3rd year as the Festus boys basketball head coach and is returning six players from last year’s squad that went 14-12. They are seniors Kobe Branscomb, Jason Johnson, Zach Liles, and Savez Thomas, as well as junior Aquille Mohammed and sophomore Collin Reando.

Even with these players coming back, coach Therrell is putting his guys through a transition in terms of style of play.

 
Coach Therrell and the Tigers will have to find some way to replace point guards Daniel Portell and Owen Horsley, both who graduated and both who understood coach Therrell’s system quite well. Now he says the point guard position will be on a “by committee” basis.

 
The Festus boys basketball team will be on the road to start the season, taking on Pacific on Tuesday the 27th. The Tigers will then host the Central Rebels for their home opener on Friday the 30th before entering the 63rd Annual Gene Steighorst Tournament on December 3rd. The tournament will be broadcast on AM 1400 KJFF and mymoinfo.com beginning the 3rd and going all the way through the championship game.

Full Chris Ellis Interview

 
Full Jason Therrell Interview