BonnerSprings.com

The writing was on the wall for Bonner Springs High School boys basketball coach Ryan Hull before the first day of practice ever began: the Braves would have no height and extremely limited experience entering a season where the Kaw Valley League had plenty of both.

So Hull did the only thing that made sense to him; he told his players the truth. He’d plotted a complete overhaul of the team’s offense, moving from a half-court, ball-control style the Braves were used to and adopting a run-and-gun offense centered around the three-point shot. The style of play, made famous by Grinnell College in Iowa, was a risky move, and Hull knew he needed his players’ cooperation to make it happen.

He saw it as the only way they had a realistic chance of winning many games.

“Look, we’ve got two wins in us. This whole year I look at us, we’ve got two wins playing old style,” Hull told them. “If we play a different style I’m not promising more wins, but I’m promising more fun.”

Hull told his seniors their playing time would be cut because of the new style — he subs in a new wave of players every minute, but those minute-long stretches of playing time involve exhausting hustle on both ends of the court. He told them the style of play would be fun, win or lose. In a sense, it would be an adventure for everyone involved, and because few teams play that style, it would be hard for opponents to prepare for them.

Seniors Isaac Mills, Luke Terrell, Chris Smith, Jared Brailsford and Chance Crawford jumped on board immediately.

“They are completely engrossed in doing this,” Hull said. “They recognized going into this year they were going to be completely outmatched if we go (with) conventional basketball. They were up for trying to make their senior year as memorable as possible.”

And what a memorable season it has been so far. After just five games, the Braves already have reached the two-win plateau that Hull predicted if they played their conventional style. Their three losses are to state ranked teams Lansing twice and Bishop Miege once. The loss to Miege was lopsided, and the games with Lansing went down to the wire.

Playing the run-and-gun style, they’re 2-3 and not far from 4-1. Playing the new style they’ve wowed their fans with their constant effort and occasional game-changing spurts from beyond the three-point arc.

They’ve been one of the area’s most entertaining teams to watch, and the interest in the Braves likely will grow with each passing game — especially if they take down a team or two near the top of the Kaw Valley League standings.

The early victories and close games have been encouraging. More pleasing, however, has been the maturity of the Braves’ senior leaders and the contributions from so many underclassmen.

“We are further along than I thought we’d be at this point (in the season),” Hull said. “This is the best group of kids in terms of leadership that I’ve had collectively in my young coaching career, seniors on down to freshmen. That plays a huge role.”

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