The American River College Men's Basketball program is excited about the 2019-20 season. The young roster features only two Sophmores, 6'3" Guard Jashon Lewis, originally from Whitney High School, and Four-year transfer Chris Cagle, a 6'7' Forward who was a leader for the Woodcreek Wolves during their dominance in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. The two will serve as team captains. Additionally, the Beavers bost a solid young core of Freshman talent including 5'8" Point Guard Jair Lang (West Campus), 6'5" Tenigee Brown (Inderkum) and 6'7" Forward David O'Looney (Nevada Union).

The coaching staff has high expectations after deep playoff runs in two of the last three seasons, including a trip to the Regional Finals in 2016-17 behind Sophmore standouts Rich Reed and Jericho Avery. Five of the eight Sophmores from the 2018-19 team earned scholarships to play at the four-year level.

Veteran Coach Mark Giorgi is assisted by Coach Michael Lorente, who is entering his seventh year with the Beavers. They are joined by former Capital Christian Head Coach McCall Wollman and former NBA star Kenny Thomas who are tasked with player development, scouting and recruiting.

"We are a young squad this year, but we definitely have quality leadership from our Sophmores and a strong coaching staff. I am confident that we can experience success this year if our guys buy-in to our non-negotiables of being coachable, being great teammates and giving 110% effort, 100% of the time". Lorente adds "We have a tough preseason schedule this year, on top of an already monster league (Big 8 Conference), but we have a few more home games this year and a tough core of guys that really enjoy playing together, so hopefully that translates into early wins and good team chemistry going into league play".

The Beavers open the season by hosting the ARC Classic with games verse Siskiyous College on November 7th and Redwoods College on the 8th. followed by a home game versus Los Medanos College on November 14th. The Men's Basketball team will then travel to Shasta for the rigorous Shasta Invitational on November 21st through the 23rd. Check out the full schedule here http://www.arcbeavers.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/schedule.