Chad Landis has seen plenty of tough battles in the league during his 12 years as coach of Liberty’s basketball program, but this year’s loaded EPC Steel Division might present one of Landis’ toughest tasks during his coaching career.

Coming off a 12-11 campaign, Liberty will need every ounce of basketball spirit this winter to gut out their 2019-20 schedule.

“We will need a couple of things to go our way this year in order for us to be competitive in our division,” said Landis. “We will need our four seniors to step up and play well consistently. We will also need some of the younger guys to really take a big step forward and be key contributors by the end of the season.”

Returning starters for the Hurricanes this year are Will Harper (Sr., Forward); Rahmad Ali (Sr., Guard); Ish Gonzalez (Sr., Guard); Dallas Holmes (Sr., Forward); Rondell McNeil (Jr., Forward) and Antonio Montgomery (Jr., Guard).

Newcomers are Messiah Johnson (Jr., Forward); Kuwasi Wellington (So., Forward); Joe Barnes (So., Guard) and Jovonnie Nunez (Jr., Guard).

With Parkland and Central considered to be two of the top six teams in the conference this year, the other four top teams in the league may belong to the Steel division with Allen, Easton, Freedom and Bethlehem Catholic leading the charge to make things a dogfight every night.

“Our goals are to be playing in “big games” at the end of the season,” said Landis. “Those are fun games to be apart of. That has meant something different to each team I have coached, but it is what we talk about early in the season. Where do we want to be at the end of the season, and the process we are starting now will determine what type of “big games” we get to play in this year.

“Our division is loaded this year. I think four of the top six teams [in the EPC] are in our division. It will be tough for us to make the playoffs this year.”