SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Coming into this season I feel like 3 of the front runners again are Wheelersburg/SW (SOC 2) and Notre Dame (SOC 1).

In the SOC 2, South Webster and Burg should be back on top and very competitive again and competing for the gold ball, they each shared it last year. Notre Dame returns a core of starters to last years SOC 1 championship team. But New Boston gave them a run for their money.

Could we see Burg and ND on top? Those two clash at Notre Dame this year.

SOC 2 favorite is Minford. They return a lot from a very good team. Burg will be solid but the lose of Holdren is huge. Always fun watching Ruby. Waverly, Oak Hill and South Webster will fight it out for 3rd through 5th. Northwest is scrappy and will win games. Could be a long season for Valley and West.

The SOC 1 favorite has to be Notre Dame. I think they return everybody except maybe one player. New Boston and East are also returning almost everybody as well. I don't know as much about Symmes Valley or the Pike County teams but I think they all lost a lot of their better players and I don't expect them to compete for an SOC 1 title. Don't count Clay out. Clay is a team that only won 8 games last season but was a team without a single upper classman and played 5 freshmen and 2 sophomores in their 7 player rotation. They have a couple nice freshmen coming and and are expected to be very deep, rotating about 10 players. They were very competitive in many of their losses last season. Below is my prediction with Notre Dame being the #1, but certainly wouldn't be surprised if the young group at Clay beats them and takes the title. The first four teams should battle and have some very entertaining games to watch.

1. Notre Dame
2. Clay
3. New Boston
4. East
5. Symmes Valley
6. Western
7. Eastern
8. Green

SOC 2 favorite is Minford

Heard Ruby wasn't playing for Wheelersburg. Minford is the favorite. Oak hill, Waverly, South Webster and Burg will be in mix. I agree about not sleeping on Northwest. They play hard and will beat a few teams they shouldn't.

Minford has the most talent. But Oak Hill has the best combination of talent and coaching.
1Oak Hill
2Minford
3South Webster
4Wheelersburg
5Waverly

Soc 2 Burg, Minford, Webster all of those teams didn't lose much and have several strong ones that can rotate in and out. Not sure on Soc 1, I think Clay will be stronger this year with their new additions. They are young talented group. Future looks bright for that crew! New Boston, ND, and East should come out strong too. Should be some good games to watch!

I didn't get to see all teams play over summer, but I did see Burg, Rock Hill, and Clay play and they made for good competition in the summer league.

REFEREE11 wrote:I didn't get to see all teams play over summer, but I did see Burg, Rock Hill, and Clay play and they made for good competition in the summer league.

Heard SW wasn't invited this past summer to Burg league! Webster lost 5 sen.I no 0f.

Minford is the favorite in SOC 2 as previously mentioned. If Ruby doesn't play for Burg then that is huge with Holden graduating. SW graduated 5 seniors and 4 starters. It's a rebuilding year but they have D1 recruit Ellie Jo Johnson so they could be a surprise by Christmas or so. Oak Hill is a contender too.

Notre Dame in SOC 1 until someone else steps up. Clay is very talented despite being young. I could see them pushing the ball and giving ND trouble.

reds4life wrote:Minford is the favorite in SOC 2 as previously mentioned. If Ruby doesn't play for Burg then that is huge with Holden graduating. SW graduated 5 seniors and 4 starters. It's a rebuilding year but they have D1 recruit Ellie Jo Johnson so they could be a surprise by Christmas or so. Oak Hill is a contender too.

Notre Dame in SOC 1 until someone else steps up. Clay is very talented despite being young. I could see them pushing the ball and giving ND trouble.

Ruby is playing

Minford is most definitely the favorite in SOC2. This will be an exciting year for the lady falcons!

captainmorgan_ wrote:Minford is most definitely the favorite in SOC2. This will be an exciting year for the lady falcons!

Agree, they have talent. Couldn't really tell much from them at previews other then seeing they have strong players. I think they will be in the run for SOC no doubt. Although, I don't think Clay played their true game plan Friday, which made Minford look even better. It will be a toss up between Burg and Minford.

From what I seen Friday night, ANY of the SOC 2 teams could make a run for it. Minford played tough, and would be the toughest to beat. But they all are beatable. Looks like some upsets this season....

Always hard to tell from the preview with coaches normally not showing what they will do in the regular season. Burg and Minford both look very very good and a couple other SOC 2 teams looked nice too. Might be a year of upsets.

In SOC1 I thought that Western, East and Notre Dame looked very good. Clay looked bad but having been to a couple of their other scrimmages can tell you for certain, they did not run anything close to what they were doing in the scrimmages. It wasn't even the same personnel groups on the floor together. They can be very very good along with the other three SOC1 schools mentioned above.

REFEREE11 wrote:

captainmorgan_ wrote:Minford is most definitely the favorite in SOC2. This will be an exciting year for the lady falcons!

Agree, they have talent. Couldn't really tell much from them at previews other then seeing they have strong players. I think they will be in the run for SOC no doubt. Although, I don't think Clay played their true game plan Friday, which made Minford look even better. It will be a toss up between Burg and Minford.

I look for Minford and Burg to battle it out in SOC 2. With Notre Dame controlling SOC 1

Definitely can't predict from the previews as I know that some weren't playing to win. I agree that this year will probably see some upsets. Going to be some good games to watch!

SOC 2 Minford and Burg

SOC 1 ND and Clay

Watched Burg tonight in a good scrimmage at Jackson (also Eastern Brown and Waterford)

Burg looked very good....as did Eastern Brown

I watched Clay and Portsmouth scrimmage last night and think they played well. Clay won the first three periods and looked dominate. Then the Lady Trojans came alive and tied the fourth period and blew Clay out in the last period. The five that Clay started the scrimmage with looked impressive and the other group that sub in did good also. I think that the groups the Clay coach put on the floor were much better than what we saw in the preview. When Warnock comes back from injury I expect them to be one of the best young teams in the area. Clay has a lot of depth with nineteen girls and have been subbing in five at a time in the scrimmages. I imagine that the coach will only do that in scrimmages. I still believe Clay will be very good and can compete for a SOC1 title.

As for Portsmouth, they only have eight players and they are young at guard. I thought that those young guards played very well against the Clay guards. Portsmouth also has a couple very aggressive and very strong post players that can be a force on both ends of the court. They took advantage of the small Clay post players with their size and strength. Depth will be an issue for Portsmouth with the low numbers. I don't think they will compete for a title in their conference that has 4-5 very very talented teams but I think their games will be closer than many expect and I think they will surprise some teams.

I have heard that Portsmouth is down this season but I do know they have a few good ones on there that can do work! So, I agree that they might surprise some this season. Young or not both of these teams have talent that can compete with the experienced teams. No doubt that Clay will be the team to beat over the next few years. This year not sure yet, but they do have a great young combo that the age doesn't show on the court. They are one of the teams that I plan to follow!