Welcome to our first WRAL Game of the Week of the New Year! This week, we will be covering a game in Eastern Wake County between the 8th ranked Knightdale Knights and the Garner Trojans. The Knights are among the top in the state, while the Trojans are trying to return to the ranks. Earlier this week, I spoke with Coach Battle Watkins of Knightdale, and here is what he had to say.

1. Your program is among the youngest in the region, but you have been able to sustain a high level of success so far. In the WRAL Poll, Knightdale is ranked 8th, and in the State-wide Media Poll, the Knights are ranked 9th. What enables Knightdale to have this type of success so early in their existence?
We are very fortunate to have some good players in our community. We are a base school so we only get the kids that live in our town. Part of our success has been hard work by our first group of seniors who have been on the varsity all 3 years and taken some bumps and bruises to get to this point. Many of them also play and work in the off-season to improve. The middle school feeder program does a good job and our jv program has worked real hard also each year to prepare our kids.

2. Now that you have had a chance to get back on the court, has the Glaxo Holiday Invitational helped or hurt your team?
Helped, it made us practice during the break and prepare for 3 really good teams. It showed our kids we could play with good teams outside of our area. It was a positive experience in so many ways. The Glaxo is a first class tournament and the people there treated our kids wonderfully.

3. During the Glaxo, your team showed a great athletic ability. Do you believe your athleticism gives you an edge over teams in your conference?
I do, we are quick but we also have decent size, we like to push on defense and offense. We have to improve in the halfcourt to balance that.

4. What does your team have to do differently to win the conference championship? What do they need to continue doing?
Continue to focus on the basics. Hard work in practice. Pressure on defense to get layups and work on our offensive execution in the half-court.

5. Of all the teams you have played this season, which team do you think has the best chance to do something special in February and March?
Millbrook has lots of talent and has a great tradition. Some of the CAP 7 teams are always playing well at the end of the season.

6. If you could play any team in the state of North Carolina, which team would it be? Why?
As they say, to be the best, we want to play and beat the best so whoever in the state is the model program year in and year out. There are some of those schools in Charlotte and Fayetteville that have been in the finals frequently but we really emphasize focusing on making ourselves better. If we do that, hopefully we can compete against the best in the state at some point.

7. Describe the level of competition in the Greater Neuse this season? Is this a reload and rebuild type of scenario for the conference?
I believe there is balance. As always Garner and [East] Wake have an athletic group and teams like W.Johnston and Clayton have had great early records. [Southeast Raleigh] is always great on defense and [Smithfied-Selma] has a new coach but they played us well. Holly Springs has great young talent and will catch up to everyone quickly.

8. The Greater Neuse is one of three major conferences in Wake County. The Tri-Eight and Cap-Seven have both shown to be power-conferences this season with many very talented teams. Can the Greater Neuse teams compete with the other Wake County teams during the post season?
I hope so.

9. Garner has a rich athletic tradition, something Knightdale lacks because of their youth. What will be the toughest part about playing Garner?
Sometimes there is a school pride thing involved but I believe our kids are developing that themselves. The more you win sometimes that helps deal with the worrying about what is on the other teams jersey.

10. What advantages does your team have over the Trojans? How will you use these to your advantage on Friday night?
I'm not sure we have any advantages. We have been fortunate to have balanced scoring and lately we have pretty deep on playing time. We truly look one game at a time and try to focus on our basic offensive and defensive philosophy: we want to take good shots and force the other team to take bad ones.

The game will tip off on Friday Night at 7:30 inside the Knigthdale High School Gym. Check back here on Thursday for more coverage of the WRAL Game of the Week.