Wildcats, Lady Cats excited for basketball season

Basketball season is just around the corner and both the Enterprise Wildcats and Lady Cats are hard at work preparing for the 2021-2022 season to start later this month.

The Wildcats are coming off the most successful season in school history, earning runner-up in Class 7A, and these Wildcats are just as hungry to get back to Birmingham this season.

“It wasn’t easy but we were fortunate to be able to make that run we made and have that experience,” Wildcat coach Rhett Harrelson said. “I think you have to run with that from last year, being four points away, as some motivation to come back this year and be even hungrier and better, but at the same time with totally different leaders and faces on the team.

“Some of the guys with us this year weren’t with us last year at all and they will be a big part of what we’re doing this year. You want to make that (success) the standard here and that’s what you play for, but at the end of the day this thing is going to be a marathon.”

Some of the key departures from last year’s team include Josh McCray, Jalen Cunningham and Jared Smith that Harrelson acknowledged would be hard to replace.

“I say all the time that Jalen Cunningham was the toughest player on the floor every single game and every single practice,” Harrelson said. “Losing his presence and his mental and physical toughness is big.

“At times no one could stop him, especially when he was being physical. We just don’t have anyone to replace that. Jared brought a toughness and athleticism that not a lot of people have, too.”

Harrelson said that he will lean on a number of players to try and fill some of that void. Those players include new varsity players moving up from JV like junior Tal Sessions, sophomore Dylan Baldwin and junior Reese Dowling along with returning veterans like sophomore Keion Dunlap, senior Marshawn Fitzpatrick, junior Jordan Hines and junior Mykel Johnson.

“I told MJ over the summer he could be the best on-ball defender I’ve ever been around,” Harrelson said. “I tell him that if he truly buys into that he will give teams fits with his lateral quickness and speed and overall athleticism and strength. He’s a tough palyer to deal with when he’s guarding you for 60 minutes.”

The Wildcats also boast a number of incoming transfers including former all-state Daleville point guard Tomar Hobdy, Ken Mitchell Jr. from Hawaii and Geneva transfer Trevon Kemmerlin. While Hobdy and Mitchell will help Enterprise from the start, the 6-foot-3-inch Kemmerlin is expected to be able to begin playing in January due to making up credits coming from a period system at Geneva to Enterprise’s block system.

Hobdy’s ability at point guard could potentially free up returning all-state senior point guard Quentin Hayes to have the chance to play at different spots this season.

“We couldn’t watch them play together this summer, so I’m excited to see them together,” Harrelson said. “They grew up playing together in travel ball and everything, so they already have good chemistry together outside of basketball.

“I’m really hopeful that carries over to the court. Tomar is so fast with the basketball in his hands and pushing the ball up court he puts so much pressure on the defense. If they collapse on him we’ll have a lot of capable guys out there that can hit threes.”

Hayes and senior Elijah Terry are coming into this season after all-state performances last year and Harrelson expects them to lead the way for the Wildcats.

“I do expect them to lead but not just necessarily because they were our leading scorers, but they are two all-state players we have coming back that have played a ton of minutes for us and they know what it takes,” Harrelson emphasized. “They’re both capable leaders and leaders in different ways.”

For now, however, the Wildcats are without a big portion of their team as the Enterprise football team continues its playoff push. Until football season ends, Enterprise will continue to get ready but Harrelson said he’s excited to have the full group together.

“We never really had our full team over the summer because Quentin was out all summer with an ankle injury and then we had some new guys move in,” Harrelson said. “We just never had our full team. We may not know until December or January how we really need to play.

“That’s kind of the fun thing about it. We’re pulling like crazy for the football team but I would be lying to say I’m not excited to see what we look like when we get those guys back. Regardless, we’ll be ready to go in January with area play.”

Harrelson said that the excitement that he sees around Enterprise over basketball has made him proud and it’s something he wants to make sure continues.

“Just talking about it puts chills on my arm,” he said. “It’s special here. I say that year after year but it truly is a special place with special people.

“It’s always easier to come and support when you have guys playing hard and flying all over the place and we want to bring that excitement out.

“I talked to (Parks and Recreation Director) Blake Moore and we have record numbers of youth basketball players and that’s awesome. We have multiple people in the community doing basketball training and putting together AAU teams and all of that is just so awesome.

“I’m so pumped and excited for the excitement around basketball in our city. We want to make this a year in and year out thing. If you want to play basketball then Enterprise should be the place to be.”

On the girls’ side, Allen Catrett – who served as an assistant coach on the boys’ team last season – has taken over as the Lady Cat head coach. He isn’t a stranger to girls basketball, however, as he previously served as both the boys and girls head coach at Red Level.

“Practices have been going really well,” Catrett said of his new team. “We’ve had a lot of really good practices so far. We have some new faces out there, too. Senior Joye Anderson (from Daleville) and Brooklyn Kimmerlin (from Geneva) have joined the team and they really have two things we really want: a great attitude and great effort.”

While the Lady Cats return seniors like Dashia Nelson, Serrenity Page, Jaida Gosha, Alayna Dean and Jaylen Corbitt along with Anderson, Catrett said he wants all 15 of his Lady Cats to serve as leaders.

“We want all 15 girls on varsity to step up and be leaders in their own right,” he said. “Our senior girls have more experience and we definitely want them to lead, but we want all 15 girls to step up and lead in some way or another.”

Catrett said the focus so far has been on improving conditioning early on as he and his coaching staff get the Lady Cats prepared for the season. Joining that staff is former Daleville girl’s coach Zach Kelley, Jermaine Shakespeare, Michaela Smith and returning assistant coach Latoya Jackson.

Shakespeare is a graduate of Andalusia and Alabama A&M, where he was a basketball star, while Kelley was the longtime girls’ basketball coach at Daleville. His Daleville squads earned six area championships during his tenure there. Smith is the daughter of current Eufaula basketball coach Michael Smith and is a recent graduate of Troy University.

“We have a lot of new faces on the staff that bring a ton of knowledge and I’m excited to have them,” Catrett said. “We have a really good coaching staff.”

Catrett said that the Lady Cats have some lofty short-term and long-term goals moving forward.

“Our goal is like everyone else, we want to be playing in Birmingham at the end of the season,” he emphasized. “Our short-term goal, though, is we want to come in every day and get better.

“We want to improve every single day by building value for ourselves and I think they are doing that now. We also want to win our area and host the area tournament.”

Enterprise opens the season on Nov. 19 on the road at Fairhope.