So far, so perfect for the Jordan basketball

Interestingly enough, Jordan will field new blood on the boys team and old blood on the girls team, and yet both teams have jumped out to undefeated starts to their season.

The girls sport a 4-0 record and the boys a 3-0 mark, but it is early on.

Rob Geersten represents the new blood on the boys team. He is newly installed as the head coach, having come over from Riverton where he assisted for three years. Altogether he counts 17 years of coaching experience prior to this year.

The girls team claims six seniors who will either start or be first off the bench. Either way, old blood or new blood seems to be working for the Beetdiggers.

BOYS: It is not unusual for new coaches to fire up their teams and jump out to a few impressive wins to start the season. Such is the case for Jordan and their first-year head coach, Geersten, who engineered a three-game win streak early on for the Beetdiggers. But what Geersten really likes is how dramatic the turn-around took place, and he can pinpoint the exact moment that it happened.

In the first game of the season, a sluggish Jordan team fell 18 points down to Copper Hills in the second quarter. Geersten called timeout and recalls he simply told the team to keep defending well. Copper Hills was exceptionally hot, and he told his team, "Their shots will not continue to fall; we need to just continue to contest every single shot, and it will wear them down."

The Beetdiggers escaped with a two-point win. The next two games Jordan won by a combined 53 points.

"That first win helped our confidence," said Geersten.

The team is more aggressive and plays hard on both ends of the court.

"The real thing I brought to this team is I want the kids to focus," he said.

And one who appears to have bought in to that philosophy is Preston Richards. In the first three games, he has averaged 18 points mainly by driving to the hoop.

When asked if taking the ball to the basket was a newly developed skill, which has resulted in his higher scoring average, he replied, "Last year my brother took all the shots. There are a lot more to go around this year."

Chase Richards has moved on to Snow College, and several other seniors graduated, leaving Geersten with basically a new team — and a young team he quickly points out.