Bulldogs Coming Together

ZEPHYRHILLS - It has been a decade since the Zephyrhills boys basketball team was a team to take notice of.

Back then, the Bulldogs were conference champions. But in recent years, they had fallen to the bottom of the standings, unable to climb back up.

This season, Zephyrhills is a program on the rebound under second-year coach Alan Reed and has a chance to make an impact in the upcoming Class 4A-District 8 tournament at Pasco.

The Bulldogs were sitting at third in 4A-8 going into Thursday's game at Sunlake after beating Hudson by 10 on Tuesday.

"I think for a bunch of years Zephyrhills had other athletes playing basketball," Reed said. "They had some good athletes, but basketball wasn't their primary sport. We've got a few kids that want to be basketball players and it's been a lot easier to be more competitive."

That competitive fire is one of the more notable differences between this year's team and last year's, even though the makeup of the team is about the same.

There are a few contributing factors to Zephyrhills' improvement, including a productive summer in which the Bulldogs participated in a tournament in Georgia.

The team was up there for about a week and played teams from Georgia and surrounding states. That gave the Bulldogs experience playing different types of teams.

But just as important, the Bulldogs became closer as a team by spending that time together on the road.

"The summer is really what helped us," senior guard Scott Patria said. "We saw different teams, some were quick, some were really big. It helped with bonding. We got to know each other a lot better."

Another reason Zephyrhills has been better is its beefed-up coaching staff.

The Bulldogs brought in two more assistants to bring the staff to four coaches - Reed, Shawn Brown, Dustin Rowe and Tim O'Connor - and that has allowed Zephyrhills to put more focus on its players.

"That's been a huge, huge factor in what we've done," Reed said. "There were some good coaches here, but I think just from the sheer numbers, having four people has made a big difference. We've been able to break down into a lot of different groups. You don't have seven or eight players, you have three or four, so you have more repetitions."

The Bulldogs run hard practices, and that isn't new, but being able to carry over the intensity from practices to games is.

That also can be chalked up to Zephyrhills being a closer team, being more efficient in practice and being under the same system for a second season.

The Bulldogs lack a big center but have seven players who play consistently. Reed says six of the seven have been the leading scorer in more than one game this season.

Including Thursday's Sunlake game, the Bulldogs have two district games left. The other is against Springstead tonight.

"I think we can keep up with the top seeds in the district," Patria said.