Sitting behind his desk on an October morning, Charles Harral looks comfortable, and with good reason: The coach of the Arizona Western College men's basketball team has had a successful first season at the helm, he and his wife have welcomed a new addition to their family over the summer, and it's always sunny in Yuma.

But don't let Harral's Southern Texas drawl and laid-back manner fool you. He's got a fire inside that never goes out. Anyone who has seen him on the sideline when his team is struggling can vouch for that.

Fortunately, struggling is not something usually associated with Matador basketball. AWC has a long-standing history of success in junior college basketball. They own the third-winningest percentage of any NJCAA team in the past six years.

The team has a boisterous fan base that makes "The House" on the AWC campus a hard place for visiting teams to play. They also have Coach Harral and his staff, who continue to impress with their recruiting and their ability to make players better.

New challenges

This season will be a challenge for Harral, however, because of the loss of some key contributors from last year.

Renan Lenz and Mateus Oliveira, both 6-10 forwards from Brazil, have transferred, and Lester Medford, the starting point guard a season ago, left school to be closer to his family. These three were a huge part of the Mats offense last year.

According to Harral, returning sophomores, Marvin Whitt, Aaseem Dixon and Carlos Perez will be relied on to pick up the slack.

"Last year, Perez was my post player behind Renan and Mateus off the bench. He's kind of an undersized, but real strong kid from San Diego," said Harral. "Those are my three guys coming back who will have an impact this year."

Although he wasn't with the team last year, freshman Ivan Uribe of Guadalajara, Mex., sees the team coming together nicely.

"One good thing about this team is our chemistry," said Uribe. "The team is pretty united, and that helps a lot because everybody can step up."

A different style

After losing his talented Brazilian front court, Harral expects a different brand of basketball from his squad this year.

"We're a totally different team from last year," Harral explains. "We're going to play a little bit more up-tempo. We're still going to play really hard on defense. Last year, I considered us more of a half-court team. This year, we're going to look to do some stuff in the half-court, but we're going to look to get out and run a lot more,"

Harral also expects his team to be deeper than a year ago.

"I don't know if my top two players are as good as Lester and Renan were last year, but as a team, we're just as dynamic and can score just as well," he said.

Having a deeper team will enable Harral to play the up-and-down style he envisions for his team.

"Our overall talent is much improved," he said. "We can get out and score easier in transition from the simple fact that we're going to play eleven guys. When guys get rest, they're more fresh, so you can play a little bit faster."

"We have a lot of talent and a lot of athleticism," said Uribe. "We should be tough to beat because of the diversity of talent we have."

One step further

Last year the Mats were one game away from going to the national tournament when their season ended in Twin Falls, Idaho, with a loss to the College of Southern Idaho.

"Last year I was playing seven, sometimes eight guys," Harral said. "It made it really difficult at times. Then, when we played Southern Idaho at the end of the year, we weren't as deep as they were. For us to beat a team like that, we needed to be deeper, and that was our goal as a staff -- to recruit a few more guys."

One thing Harral's players find out early on is, if you want to wear the cardinal and gold, be prepared to work hard.

"I believe that we're one of the most prepared teams out there as far as conditioning," said Uribe. "Guys worked out on their own in pre-season, but once practice started we went all out, and our conditioning sessions were pretty intense."

That intensity is what Coach Harral expects his team to play with every game day. The players know Harral will have it, no matter how laid-back he is on off days.