Media Days are supposed to be full of optimism; after all, no team has lost a game. The mood was upbeat on Thursday at the middle school gym in Jefferson for the Greene County High School boys’ basketball Media Day. Coach Jeramie Hinote’s Rams were 6-16 last year, when little in the way of experienced players were at his disposal during his first at the helm. The situation is quite a bit different this season with all five starters back and three others who played minutes off the bench.

Among the returning players is sophomore Trey Tucker. The shooting guard made 51% of his field goal attempts last season and led the team in scoring at 19.7 points per game. Tucker was named first team all-conference in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference, and he was also on a Class 3A all-district team. He was the top scoring freshman in Class 3A last season and was the eighth highest scoring player overall in 3A.

Seniors Landon Braun and Riah Nelsen were both honorable mention all-conference choices as juniors. Max Neese and Tyler Beger, both juniors, were starters last season, and juniors Mitchell Gorsuch, Sico Boateng, and Reid Lamoureux saw time off the bench.

Although a number of players return, challenges lie ahead for Coach Hinote and the Rams. No player is listed taller than 6′ 2″ and the team gave up 65 points a game last season, a figure that almost certainly must come down if the Rams are to get significantly more than six victories.

The Heart of Iowa named eight players to the first all-conference team and eight to the second team, and moving up from eighth in the league in 2013-14 may not be easy either. Four first team players return including junior Logan Gilman of PCM (Monroe), the only unanimous selection to the first team a season ago. Joining Tucker and Gilman on the first team are sophomore Collin Hill of last year’s league champion South Hamilton (Jewell), and senior Bryce Kemp of CMB (Baxter). Four second team all-conference players are also back, meaning eight of the 16 honorees return.

Greene County’s games will be broadcast on KG98 again this season, starting the the varsity girls in Monroe vs. PCM on Nov. 25 at 7:15 p.m. The first girl/boy doubleheader of the season is on Tuesday, Dec. 2 in Colfax vs. Colfax-Mingo.