Lehman guard De’Andre Carson was one of the leaders on the Lobo Elite basketball team, which wrapped up a successful summer season recently. (Photo by Adam Reyna)

by MARK CAUL

When the high school basketball season begins in early December, the Lehman High boys team may have a steep climb as they battle for playoff positioning in the new District 27 4-A.

But after a competitive summer schedule in which they gained valuable experience despite playing without their best post player and senior captain during the summer elite campaign, the future indeed looks bright.

The Lobos will probably have three seniors in the starting lineup on opening night next school year. Among them will be Tarale Murry, who was again forced to miss the entire summer season because of a couple of injuries, and will enter his last season at Lehman with a clean bill of health and ready to contribute after struggling through one nagging injury after another for much of his Lobo career.

When healthy, Murry will most likely play AAU basketball during the early part of the fall campaign and continue to work on adding muscle to his frame before the Lobos begin play in December. With the graduation of three key seniors, he now becomes the team’s first scoring option.

In addition, the projected starting senior tandem of Dane Peddycoart and Adam Woodworth will join Murry in the fray after seeing limited action in the summer league. Both will still be counted on to log heavy minutes this season for the Lobos in crunch time.

On a positive note, the Lobos were able to showcase several players who will be in the mix this season at the guard slot, which will be one of the questions Acker’s crew must address this fall.

Two of the bright spots this summer for Lehman were the underclassmen guard tandem of junior Charles Williams and talented sophomore De’Andre Carson who were the two top offensive threats for the Lobos.

Williams led the team in scoring while Carson dished out the most assists in his second summer of varsity-level basketball.

“I think those two guys were the leaders of this team all summer long,” Lehman Elite Coach David Gutierrez said. “They were always very active on the defensive end and that helped keep us in a lot of games. It says a lot about how competitive they are to be able to play against guys two or three years older and hold their own.”

Lehman head boys basketball coach Thomas Acker, who watched from the stands as the Lobos advanced to the championship game at the Dynasty Royale Classic three weeks ago, was also pleased at how his young backcourt tandem has progressed over the summer.

“We will be looking at both of those guys at the varsity level because they both have some talent,” Acker said. “If they are able to help us, we will certainly utilize them. They struggled at times against the more experienced teams like Del Valle but overall I was pleased that those two guys continued to work and get better.”

Second year varsity players Gino Silvas and Larry Benson, both seniors, were also able to play quality minutes during the elite season. Silvas could possibly shoulder some of the scoring load in the fall with his outside shooting touch while Benson spent the summer working diligently to improve his touch around the basket.

“Both Gino and Adam have worked on the things that we’ve asked them to work on and I have seen tremendous improvement from them both,” said Gutierrez. “I’m expecting them both to make big contributions to their team in the fall.”

The elite summer league showcased teams from Dripping Springs, Wimberley, Del Valle, Clemens and New Braunfels. The league has served as a measuring stick for many players who have eligibility remaining on the high school level every season.

It was only the second full season that Lehman has assembled an elite league squad and Acker believes that the young Lobos have reaped the benefits of facing off against top-level teams this summer.

“Once the guys understand and start to execute what we are trying to teach them, the results can only be positive,” Acker said. “I think the more that this summer program grows, the better off our players will be. And where we want to be is the playoffs.”