The Bowdon High School boys basketball team just had most of its players become available when football season ended, which would make the quick turnaround before next Tuesday’s season opener at Haralson County a major problem if the Red Devils didn’t return so many seasoned players.

But with plenty of experienced and talented guys returning and Bowdon shooting to be in its new gym for its Dec. 5 home opener against Cleburne County (Ala.), Red Devil coach Vic Coggins said the team is excited about what this year might hold.

“With the new gym, we’re real excited,” Coggins said. “We feel like we’ve got a chance to have a pretty good team if we’ll work hard and improve on some of the fundamental areas (where) we were hurting last year.”

And those areas Coggins is particularly looking for improvement in are defense and free-throw shooting.

“We didn’t do a good job on defense last year, and we didn’t shoot free throws well,” Coggins said. “And if we work hard to do those things, I think we’ve got a shot to have a pretty good season.”

Coggins said senior Darious Moten and junior Cedric Strickland will be the clear leaders of a frontcourt that also includes senior Terell Thornton.

“We know that those guys are just solid for us, and we’re going to rely on them,” Coggins said. “And we’re going to try to ride them a long way this season.”

Moten said that after starting so many young guys in recent seasons, the Red Devils should reap the benefits of those guys’ experience this year.

“We should be real experienced,” Moten said. “I think we’ve got a good chance to win region.”

At the point guard position, sophomore J.B. Stephens is the returning starter, though junior Nathan Montgomery should also help shoulder the ball-handling load.

“We feel like with J.B. coming back with a year of experience now, he can really contribute there. And we’re going to ask Nathan Montgomery to really step it up. He did a real good job this summer playing the point for us,” Coggins said. “So we feel like we’ve got some guys that can make some good contributions there.”

Last season the team’s 3-point shooting amounted to little more than hoping it was one of the nights Stephens got hot from beyond the arc, but Coggins has a feeling his team’s perimeter game will be a little more well-rounded this season.

“I’m sure some folks are going to try to force us to shoot it outside, and we feel like we’ve got a couple guys now that we can rely on instead of just hoping that J.B.’s going to be able to make a few 3-point shots for us,” Coggins said. “We’ve got some other guys we feel like we can stick in there. They did it this summer. We’ve just got to do it when it counts.”

In his fourth year as coach, Coggins said he finally has the kind of depth that is so helpful during the season. He also has four seniors in Moten, Thornton, Tony Wyatt and Eric Slaughter who have been with him all along the way.

With the solid number of guys who could see the floor for him, Coggins also said he’s hoping to throw some new looks at teams this season.

“We’re going to try to do some things a little bit different this year, play a little more up-tempo,” Coggins said. “We feel like we have the depth that we haven’t had in the past.”

Moten said that even with Bowdon’s considerable size, it should still be able to successfully implement a pressing defense.

“Even though we’re big, we’re really fast,” Moten said.

He’s already excited just thinking about how that defense could turn into offense for the Red Devils.

“I’m pretty excited. (There should) be a lot of chances for wide-open shots, maybe some dunks,” Moten said. “It’s also going to be a little tiring, though. So we’re going to have to put in a lot of conditioning for it.”

Strickland’s ready for the more fast-paced style, as well.

“It’s more exciting because it makes the game more intense,” Strickland said.

He’s optimistic Bowdon will give its fans plenty to enjoy, as well.

“We should have a pretty good chance this year of going pretty far,” Strickland said.