By Mark Carpenter – 

After you have devoured that Thanksgiving turkey and then had a day of leftovers, you can turn your attention to high school boys basketball on Friday, Nov. 24. On the evening after Thanksgiving, Peebles High School will be the site of the always much-anticipated Southern Hills Athletic Conference Boys Basketball Preview.
In the minds of many fans and coaches, the conference could be very evenly balanced in boys basketball for the 2017-18 campaign, and Preview Night gives fans the opportunity to catch their favorite squads in action in the two-quarters of exhibition play that will involve all 10 of the boys’ teams in the SHAC.
The action begins at 5 p.m. and right off the bat Adams County fans will get the chance to see the work of new West Union head coach Greg Himes as he leads the Dragons into battle with the Whiteoak Wildcats. The 6 p.m. matchup will pit two of our county teams against each other as Coach Nathan Copas and the North Adams Green Devils face Coach Joey Darnell and the Manchester Greyhounds, two teams that could both certainly cause some disruptions in this season’s SHAC play.
At 7 p.m., the Fayetteville Rockets will matchup with the Lynchburg Clay Mustangs, always a tough out in SHAC play, and following at 8 p.m., the Fairfield Lions, one of the favorites in the small school division, will tangle with the Ripley Blue Jays, one of the favorite sin the big school division.
The final two quarters of the night will see the host team, Coach Josh Arey and the Peebles Indians facing the dean of boys’ coaches in the conference, Coach Rob Beucler and his Eastern Warriors.
Just as with the SHAC Girls Preview, the match ups for the boys were determined by the results of the coaches poll taken at the annual C103 Kickoff Party. In the small school division, the coaches predicted the Peebles Indians to come out on top, followed in order by Fairfield, Fayetteville, Manchester, and Whiteoak. In the bog school division, the favorite of the coaches was Eastern Brown, followed by Ripley, Lynchburg, North Adams, and West Union.
Look for a report on all the boys’ preview action in the Nov. 29 issue of The People’s Defender.