Any time a coach is hired to take over a program, there are always struggles each coach must go through—building chemistry, understanding the personnel and fitting into a new environment.

Throw in a global pandemic and the challenges Cascade coach Chris Lawson has faced are pretty unprecedented.

Even with all the uncertainty and tests to overcome, Lawson has settled into the head coaching position with the Champions and likes the early returns he's seen from his team so far.

“To be honest, it's been better than what I expected. I expected there to be hiccups, and there have been. When we started, we were missing football guys. I think to start with we had 10 guys that were in quarantine,” Lawson said.

Having graduated players at key positions a season ago, Lawson says he can see the growth within the program even before the first tip-off of the season.

With a roster chalked full of height in the paint and depth at guard, Lawson says he expects to rotate several players on any given night.

“The strength is probably going to be a mix of inside-outside. We have several big guys, but we have several guards. Our rotation might go 10—we may play 10 guys a night. I want to get the ball inside first and play inside-out to get those looks outside,” he said.

Highlighting guard play will be Lucas Clanton, who saw quality minutes last season as a backup to then-senior Brandon Heath.

Ethan Swan and Justis Carter also saw valuable minutes a season ago and will anchor the rotation in the paint.

Lawson was hired to helm the Champion program over the summer and due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, typical team building experiences, such as team camps, scrimmages and summer practices, were all canceled.

“I got hired in mid-June and we were able to get several days of practice in, but we were still fighting this same battle. We weren't allowed to do any five on five stuff, it was more of skill development,” he said.

While basketball still has questions abound concerning social distancing, contact tracing and quarantines, having a full slate of fall sports that successfully navigated competition during a pandemic season was both helpful and hopeful for the winter season.

“Having volleyball, we were able to take a little bit away from that. There's been some scares and I think there's still a lot of unknowns,” Lawson said.

Still, the players are on the court and able to compete in full-team activities, which is a sign of good things to come.

A season ago, Cascade finished with a 9-21 overall record, settled for third in the District 8-A standings and saw its season come to an end in the Region 4-A quarterfinals.

While the wins weren't quite there a season ago, Lawson is focused on building the foundation for his team, which hopefully translates into wins come postseason play.

“I try not to put too much of a premium on winning and losing right now. What matters right now is the development of a program. The growth of the program has been good. It's been really, really good. My expectations for them are to come out and get better in practice and then when we get a chance to play a game and see what we can do,” he said.

While nobody truly knows what to expect in a season plagued by COVID-19 outbreaks, Lawson says the goal is to focus on building up the Champions by putting in the necessary practice work and being thankful to play as many games as possible this season.

“I just want to work hard and I want our guys to work hard and continue to improve each day and be thankful we get to come out and play,” he said.

Cascade opens the 2020-2021 season tonight at Nolensville and will host the Webb School on Friday in the home opener.