(This is another in a continuing series previewing teams participating in the 2021 Lakota Nation Invitational)

By Rich Winter

After a year of basketball missed because of COVID-19, Christian McGhee’s Red Cloud boys basketball team is young but dripping with potential.

 “We have a ton of juniors that are going to have to lead us,” McGhee said. 

 Red Cloud has two seniors, Hehaka Sapa Catches Enemy and Kaden Brings Plenty, 10 juniors, two who played significant minutes as freshmen. 

 “Adriano Rama and Josiah Cottier are two players that played as freshmen for us,” he said. “They are juniors now so we are looking for them to lead us.” 

 Rama averaged 9.7 points per game and 2.5 rebounds per game in 2019-20, helping Red Cloud to a SoDak 16 appearance and a 16-6 record. 

 Red Cloud isn’t big by Class A standards but McGhee feels like his ‘bigs’ are going to get the job done. 

 “We have Gabe Brooks who is 6-foot-4 and JayShaun Morrisette who is about 6-foot-3,” he said. “We also have Stacy Poignee, 6-foot-2 and Hehaka Catches Enemy who is 6-foot-3.” 

 McGhee continues. 

 “They aren’t ‘big’ but they are big for our program and this is going to help us tremendously,” he said. 

 The Red Cloud coach noted Jules Ecoffey and Haedyn Haas, both juniors, are going to be a big piece to the Crusaders success. 

With all those juniors McGhee thinks the 2021-2022 version of Red Cloud basketball will be very deep. 

Other players mentioned: 

• Nick Zuniga is a junior and one of, if not our best defender. 

• Monty Montileaux and Nate LeBeaux are our young guys as sophomores but will develop and will help us, especially later in the season. 

 Season outlook: 

“I think we may be inconsistent at the beginning of the year at times,” he said. “By the end of the season I fully expect us to be in the mix to make a run at the state tournament.”