Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

HS BASKETBALL:

Aaron Navitsky, quartet of football players will star for Liberty boys

2010-2011 Boys Prep Basketball

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

Liberty basketball player Aaron Navitsky.

Pat Welby

Liberty High boys basketball coach Pat Welby talks about the upcoming season.

About half of the players in Liberty’s rotation have already made a deep postseason run this year.

Ty Byrd, Daniel Filimona, Jeremy Lagasca and Kai Nacua all played significant roles on the Liberty football team that advanced to the state semifinals. Liberty coach Pat Welby hopes they bring the same mentality to the hardwood.

“Their intensity and level of enthusiasm is just tremendous,” Welby said. “They are going to make everyone work and compete that much harder.”

The four missed the beginning of the season because of the end of the football, but now join forces with an already talented roster.

Senior Aaron Navitsky, a 6-foot-4 forward, should lead the Patriots in a number of stat categories.

“We can move him inside and outside,” Welby said. “He’s got leadership skills and he’s an excellent rebounder. We are not going to be big overall, so we’re expecting him to do a lot.”

Junior Randy Thomason will run the point for Liberty, which is looking to take last year’s success a step further.

The Patriots made the playoffs, but were ousted in the first round by Valley. It was the third straight year Liberty advanced to the postseason.

“That raises expectations,” Welby said. “It gives us a goal to attain and shoot for. That’s why we did conditioning and worked so hard in the offseason.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy