Jeff Reynolds keeps a close watch on what he considers the lifeline to keeping the Air Force men’s team on the high road.
He has seen two players in the last year depart Air Force Prep, breaking what he considers an essential feeder chain to a program that in the past five years has won 106 games and a conference championship and has been to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT once.
The loss of Stephen Sauls, playing this season at Washington State, and Tom Parks, who returned to his home state of Wyoming, leaves a gap in the projected rosters of Reynolds’ future plans.
“They leave for various reasons,” Reynolds said. “Maybe they don’t like the military part of it, maybe they’re having troubles academically or maybe they’re being recruited by other programs.”
Sauls, who has played in eight games this year for the Cougars, was a difficult loss. Reynolds said if Sauls had stayed, he would have helped at guard this year, along with Evan Washington, a freshman from the Prep School who stayed at Air Force.
“The success of our program over the last five years is molded from the fact that we’ve gotten three and sometimes more than three good players out of the prep school each year,” Reynolds said. “Evan Washington is a good example this year. If we can add two or three direct-in freshmen each year, our program is going to be solid. If you lose a couple of players out of the prep school, it slows the foundation process.
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
