CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As one sports season ends, another begins: Friday nights will no longer be played out on the gridiron, but will take to the hardwoods.
The first games of the high school basketball season will be Tuesday, and the team that made it to the state tournament last season gets it all going at home. The Clarksville Wildcats will host the Dickson County Cougars on Tuesday night in the William Workman Gymnasium.
Scouting the Cougars
The Wildcats and Cougars have battled for years in most of the schools’ sports. Clarksville head coach Ted Young remembers playing against the Cougars while he was a Wildcat himself. This year’s meeting will be a bit different for Young, though, because he will be prepping his team for a group that features a new head coach.
“I know very little about them. I think they have had some changes in their coaching staff,” Young said. “One thing about Clarksville High, we’ve only had three head coaches to be at Clarksville High. I think Dickson always has good players, it’s just I think they have had three different head coaches in four years and the continuum may be the problem of it.”
Return of JJ Wheat
Not only have the Wildcats had great consistency with their coaching staff, they have also had the same at their point guard position for the past three seasons. Senior JJ Wheat returns for the Wildcats and will look to pick up where he left off last season. Entering this season, Wheat will have an opportunity to try to guide his team back to the state tournament. If Wheat is able to do this, he’ll be in company with another great Clarksville High point guard.
“From a guard perspective, only one other point guard that I have had that started as a freshman was Tyrone Caldwell, who went on to play in Division I and got us to the state tournament twice. It would be a tall order for JJ to lead us into that length of a season twice, but he keeps improving on everything that we work on,” Young said.
The Wildcats will start their 2021-22 campaign Tuesday night as they host Dickson County. They will return to action on Thursday night as they travel to Green Hill.
Listen to the full interviews with the coaches starting at 6 p.m. Thursday on Sports Night on ESPN Clarksville online, or on-air 104.1 FM/540 AM.
MORE: Season preview with photos of all the local teams from the high school TOA Jamboree.