It was fun. I can’t complain about the guys’ work ethic and willingness to try something different.”

Cascade Champions HC Doug Worsley

BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – When Doug Worsley was announced as Cascade’s newest Boys’ Basketball Head Coach on May 16th to replace the departing of now-MTCS HC, Chris Lawson, following a 16-13 season, the longtime Murfreesboro Central Magnet coach knew he was walking into a completely new situation with summer ball right around the corner. Even so, now that the TSSAA-mandated “dead period” is in effect as of July 1st, Worsley was able to reflect on his first summer at the helm of the Cascade Champions.

“I thought we surprised some people,” he said, “In between game days we were working hard, developing the kids, basically just practicing and working on a lot of defensive stuff. This summer, the goal offensively was to get our pace-of-play up; we want to go fast, we want to go up-tempo, and get guys to buy into roles. Defensively, it was just getting the guys to learn a different scheme and system. Learning how to play man-to-man the way I want to play it, being relentless, and not taking any plays off on defense. Also, of course, developing the young kids. We have a nice freshman class and a pretty good returning sophomore class.”

Cascade went 8-4 over the three camps in June with two days at Coffee County, two days in Gallatin, two days at Van Buren, and then concluding with BCAT (Basketball Coaches Association of Tennessee) held in Williamson County this year.

Some of the wins came against an athletic Creekwood team, former district foes Cannon County and Grundy County, Davidson Academy, and Macon County. Worsley believes this solid start is just that – the start. 

“The kids are learning…I call it the honeymoon phase right now,” he explained, “Everything is fun, it may not necessarily be what they enjoy all the time, but everybody is all riled up. The honeymoon phase ends when June ends, but we had a good reception. Kids were figuring roles out, and when they weren’t sure, I was there to let them know that for this summer, this is your role. I use summer for evaluation; it’s not just to find out where we are as a team, it’s more about individual skills, and since with these kids I didn’t have a whole lot of information about their individual skills, I used a lot of this to do it. Sitting down with them when we come back from the dead period and actually evaluating them one-on-one in the office and saying, ‘here’s your strengths, here are your weaknesses, this is the role you were in this summer, but it doesn’t mean you have to stay in that role.’ Your role grows as you go; the empowerment is with the kids.”

Worsley wants to play an up-tempo style on offense, but his calling card is his defensive prowess. He expects a tough, hounding, and energetic man-to-man defense, and implementing that kind of style in your first month or two on the job isn’t an easy task, but Worsley believes that this team has the ability to be extremely solid and tenacious on that end of the floor. 

“Certainly we are not where we want to be [defensively] yet. The biggest thing was to get the guys to play with energy on the defensive end like we want to, and I thought we did some really good things this summer from a standpoint of us understanding where the help should come from, understanding where we were trying to take the ball and take the offense out of what they wanted to run, and there were some really nice bright spots,” he said, “Even so, it’s slow learning because it is so new.  The senior class did a really good job of being like ‘Hey guys, this is how Coach wants to play, let’s go do it,’ and they kind of set the tone for it early. I think we’re capable of being a very, very good defensive team. We had some sparks this summer where I thought we did a really good job with just the disruption and constant havoc we caused. We don’t have the size, but we were able to speed teams up and make teams rush some shots which allowed us to rebound and get out and go. I thought we were really disruptive, and then we ran into some teams where you couldn’t speed ‘em up and they didn’t get rattled. There’s still a lot to work on…we’re seeing the rotations, we’re just not quite there yet, and I don’t expect to be in the summer. If we had peaked in the summer then we’re done. We have a goal, we have a mountain to climb, and I’m very positive that we’re going to get there by the end of the year.”

For the team as a collective unit, it’s obvious that Worsley is extremely optimistic about how far this team can grow and how high their ceiling will be by wintertime. Individually, Worsley saw strides taken by just about everyone that stepped foot on the court, especially guys that you would assume to be team leaders for the upcoming season – seniors like Kaleb Kelso, Henry Stone, and Tyler Rodgers. For Kelso specifically, Cascade fans will probably be seeing him operating and initiating offense with the ball in his hands a lot more following the graduation of Jason Cullum. 

“I thought [Kaleb] Kelso did a really good job…I’m kind of making him step out and play a role that he’s not, I don’t necessarily want to say comfortable with because I told the guys at the beginning that I’m not okay with you being comfortable. You’re not pushing yourself unless you’re uncomfortable. So I wouldn’t call Kelso a point guard, but we’ve been having him handle the ball a lot more than what he had from what I saw on film,” Worsley explained, “He’s embraced that and he’s worked hard at getting better at it and I think he’s pushed himself. It’s not learning to score from a new position, but it’s different with the ball in your hands versus when he was off the ball. I thought he did a really good job in the summer embracing that. I’d like to see him continue his defensive movement forward – I’m not saying he’s a bad defender because he’s not – but I like to see him being more aggressive. Scorers usually aren’t greedy and great defenders, but watching Kelso through the summer, you can see where he would lock some guys up, he’d get excited about it, and it made him play even harder.”

“I thought Tyler Rodgers did a really good job just being a terror on the defensive end,” he continued, “Turning him loose, allowing him to roam a little bit and go double…he played pretty good help defense all summer too. I think Henry [Stone] did another really good job. I knew he was going to be solid because I remembered him from watching game film, anchoring the middle of that zone while undersized…he’s a really, really good help-side defender, and he’s a physical guy that’s not afraid of contact. I also thought Cooper [McElroy] did a really good job…I mean I can’t complain about the summer we had, but I think that group of guys really stood out.”

Worsley also expressed satisfaction with some of the juniors and sophomores for stepping up after Noah Watson sustained a relatively minor knee injury following the first set of camp dates, opening up some minutes that other guys on the bench would have to fill.

“We also had some nice surprises. I thought Tyler Barrett and Tristan [Billings] both, for guys who really didn’t start much and maybe didn't get as many minutes last year, they gave us a lot of minutes. Noah [Watson] hurt his knee after Coffee County and was out most of the three weeks. It was a minor thing, but it set him back a bit and so we were missing a guy who had eaten some minutes up. I thought Tristan and Tyler both came in and did some really good things offensively, and then defensively they showed us some surprises as well. I thought a couple of the sophomores – Cooper, Ryder [Pilkington], Micah [Jones], and Jackson [Gulick] all got some minutes here and there. Ryder got a bunch of minutes just trying to really accelerate his learning curve because I feel like him and Cooper can be a really nice 1-2 punch in the post.”

Worsley also talked about how he was pleased with how quick the team caught on to his offensive “concepts.” Up-tempo, yes, but specifically the primary and secondary breaks Worsley wants to constantly run. He wants the primary break to be an eight to nine second window to score following regaining possession of the ball, and if they can’t get a good look in that time, a secondary break triggers while the defense is still trying to get matched up cleanly. In all, Worsley’s intent is to get both a good look and a basket within 15 seconds of starting a possession, whether it begins with a rebound, a forced turnover, or an inbound off a made basket. 

Two specifics that Worsley expressed satisfaction with his team’s improvement were both on the offensive end, and he thinks that they both greatly improve their offensive efficiency.

“I thought two of the biggest things we got better at over the summer were playing off two feet because when you drive, the defense is going to collapse, and can you play off two feet. Of course, the ultimate example of that was Villanova, and they don’t get sped up. The other concept was shot-selection. We came a long way from Day 1 to whatever the very last workout was. They started recognizing that ‘one more pass gets this guy a better shot than what I’m getting right now,’ so there were times we could see that shot-selection lightbulb come on.”

Finally, the new Champs’ leader summed up why he feels this summer was successful as he is set to begin his first season at the helm in 2025-26 – building credit with one another.

“I think this was very successful and positive because the kids recognized – like I gave them a blank slate because I didn’t know them, and I’m still getting to know them – that my challenge to them was, you have to put credit in the bank,” he concluded, “Your parents let you go do stuff because they trust you, not just because you’re their kid. You earned credit in the bank by being responsible. They recognized they had a clean slate and went out and said ‘I’m going to show Coach what I can do.’ I told them that they have to build credit with me for me to be able to trust you to be able to do things, and then I have to show you that I can give you that credit too. I can show you that I understand what’s going on, I can show you that I can coach you to help you get better. I thought we built some credit with each other this summer. I thought that was very empowering.”

Cascade’s season is set to begin sometime in mid-November. At the time of writing, the 2025-26 season schedule has not been released.