The Mineral County High basketball team will open its season Thursday, tipping off at 2:30 p.m. against Bishop, Calif. in the Serpent Classic.

The Serpents will be led by seniors Tyshawn Bonner and Brady Cardenas, along with sophomore Jon Cromer. The Serpents have four more returners from last year’s squad: Senior Wattie Balderrama; juniors Spencer Benjamin and Isaiah Crowl; along with sophomore Dempsey Quintaro. Rounding out the team will be junior, Matt Cromer and sophomores Taylen Wachsmuth, Brandon West, Andre Davis, and junior Chandler Isom.

This years team has a nice combination of veterans and a very good group of sophomores that will give the Serpents depth to the bench which they will need to run our fast paced offense and pressure defense.

The boys will play two games on Friday, Dec. 5. They will face the varsity from ROP at 9:45 a.m. at the junior high gym and later will go against Silver Stage at 9 p.m. at the high school on Saturday, Dec. 6, the Serpents will play Yerington at 6:15 p.m. at the high school.

The Serpents have a tough beginning schedule as in the seven pre-season games, only one is a 1A opponent, the rest are 2A and 3A schools. The team will be exciting to watch and are very optimistic about a great season. They are working very hard on conditioning and seem to be coming together as a solid unit.