Pioneers Settling In For More Success Next Season

Few high school basketball programs have experienced the consistent success like Pinnacle the past decade.

Don’t look for much to change anytime in the near future.

“We have a great mixture,” long-time head coach Charlie Wilde told Sports360AZ.com in a recent interview about his 2015-16 roster. “Great leadership with some experience.”

The Pioneers will feature five seniors, a few juniors and a handful of talented underclassmen who are looking to build on last season’s 19-10 campaign. One of those seniors is 6’8 Nik Mains who averaged seven points and five rebounds a game last winter.

Now the versatile Mains, who Wilde calls “a unique talent with height and guard skills” is hoping to take his game to the next level, focusing on two specific areas as he prepares for his final prep season. 

“Defense and my post game,” the stretch-four said to Sports360AZ.com in-between games at ACU’s recent team camp–one which Pinnacle won the week three championship. “[I want] to be a shooter and a post person. It’s hard to guard.”

Who else may be hard to guard are two of Pinnacle’s before mentioned freshmen in backcourt mates Trent Brown and Spencer Rattler. The six-foot, 160-pound Rattler, who has trained with well-respected local quarterback guru Mike Giovando since fifth grade, may succeed Michigan State signee Brian Lewerke at quarterback before switching from the gridiron to the hardwood this fall. 

Don’t let their youth be mistaken for their basketball I.Q. according to Wilde.

“That might be the biggest thing you don’t see anymore is a knowledge of the game,” he said of his young crop of players who have both performed well in camp play this summer. “They’re going to be very, very talented in the next few years.”

Such is life with Pinnacle basketball.

“I like our team,” Wilde confidently explained. “We think we have a chance [for a great season]. We think we have a chance every year…this is no different.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same.