Thursday, December 14, 2006

Boys tip off new season on hardwoods

by Kenneth Lassiter

As the holiday season nears and high school basketball season warms up in early season action, some of the county boys’ coaches find their holiday stockings a little weightier than others in terms of returnees.

With the new season has come changes in the ranks as two new coaches join the county fold. Back for his 21st season with Jefferson County North basketball is coach Jim Brickell along with second-year coaches Caleb Gatzemeyer at Valley Falls, Tracy Kutscher at Oskaloosa and Jeff Dickson at Perry-Lecompton.

Coach Larry Latimer left after 10 seasons at Jefferson West to take over the program at Seaman High School, so stepping in for him is assistant David Overstreet, who is also the former one-time girls’ coach at Valley Falls. Jason Schroeder also steps up from freshman coach to head coach at McLouth in place of Chad Brown, who left the school after four years of coaching.

North and West were the teams to beat last season as the Chargers racked up a 20-4 season in Winchester that culminated in a loss to Jackson Heights in the substate finals in St. Marys. West, meanwhile, rolled to a 16-5 record before undergoing a horrific shooting night in a home-court season-ending loss to Hayden in the substate semifinals. Oskaloosa posted a .500 record at 11-11 while Valley Falls was next at 7-14 and McLouth and Perry-Lecompton posted identical 5-16 records.

Following is a capsule review of each team entering the season in order of finish last season.

Jefferson Co. North
Coach: Jim Brickell, 21st year
Last season: 20-4

A few of the players who helped key last season’s successful campaign for the Chargers were lost to graduation but a couple of the team’s more potent weapons return for Brickell.

JCN for the second straight year enters the season with a strong squad of 34 players led by eight seniors. Twenty-two of the team’s players are sophomores and freshmen, so the Chargers are stocked for the future. Leading scorer senior forward Wes Weishaar is perhaps the team’s most important returnee along with senior guard Drew Kraxner and senior guard and forward Daniel Finley. That trio provides the bulk of the varsity experience for the team entering this season.

After those three, the varsity rotation will include senior guard Mark Kern, senior guard and forward Austin Low, senior forward Ritchie Page and senior guard and forward Josh Abel. Brickell said juniors Chris Noll (a guard), Luke Noll (a guard and forward) and Jared Brown (a forward and center) would also see some varsity time. He said this second batch of inexperienced (from a varsity standpoint) upperclassmen could be the key to the team’s fate this season.

“We might have a hard time during the first part of the season. We’ don’t have many guys back who got varsity time last year,” Brickell said. “Offensively I worry about our outside shooting ability and we don’t seem very quick compared to past seasons, but how strong we become will depend a lot on those inexperienced players and how well they can contribute.”

Until those players who are relatively new to the varsity game get adjusted to it, Brickell will be counting on Weishaar, Finley and Kraxner to step up and make a difference for the Chargers.

“It’s nice to have the scoring ability Wes brigns and the ball handling that Drew brings coming back,” Brickell said. “Daniel has gotten better over the off-season and I’m looking to him to do more scoring-wise for us.”

Brickell pointed to Jackson Heights and Kansas City Christian as the league teams to watch for this season and said McLouth and Doniphan West could be dark horses this year in the Delaware Valley League race.

“I’d say the DVL is more up in the air this year than in the past,” he said. “I really think McLouth could surprise a few people this season.

“I think we should be able to compete with everyone we play. After these first few games we’ll have a better handle on what combinations of players work better than others, but I think we should be a fairly strong team again.”

Jefferson West
Coach: David Overstreet, first year
Last season: 16-6

Unlike JCN, the Tigers lost a great deal of their varsity experience from a team that used high-pressure defense and some shooting prowess for success. A junior forward leads the Tigers back for another season under the first new coach for the West boys since the 1990s.

Junior Tom Shirley will be counted on by Overstreet as his most experienced varsity player on a team of 28 that includes four seniors. Some of the other returnees got small amounts of playing time a year ago but Shirley is the only returning starter. Overstreet said he would count on senior guard Brock Anderson, junior guard Miles Wulfekoetter and senior guard Derek Helton to help lead the team. Helton brings the most varsity experience other than Shirley’s as the senior came off the bench for last year’s Tiger squad. Overstreet said senior post player Josh Baker and senior Chris Kaberline would also likely see varsity action.

“We’ve got some good-sized kids,” Overstreet said. The adjustment has gone somewhat smoother for Overstreet as he coached many of the team members on junior varsity last season. “A few of the seniors and juniors played JV ball for me last year, so if nothing else, they’re used to me and know how I like things to be.”

With a program that has made its mark in past seasons with fast-paced offense and high-pressure defense, Overstreet said he isn’t making huge changes to the team’s playbook as the new head coach.

“With our size that will hopefully be a benefit for Tom if he’s getting double-teamed,” Overstreet said. “We’ll be doing a lot of the things we’ve done under coach Latimer but there will be a few things we do differently. Perimeter play was our strength last year but this year we’re stronger inside.”

Overstreet takes his Tiger team against a Big Seven League that features perennial powers in Sabetha and Nemaha Valley along with the aforementioned defending 3A state champ Maur Hill, so he knows he has his work cut out for him.

“There are a lot of teams in the league that are fun to play against because you know they’re gonna be tough,” he said. “The seniors have been great in practice. The whole team has given me great effort and are paying attention real well to what we’re wanting them to do on the court. I’ve been really happy with the practices thus far.”

Oskaloosa
Coach: Tracy Kutscher, second year
Last season: 11-11

Kutscher helped the Bears improve their record by four wins last season but enters his second season at Oskaloosa without four starters from that team.

Lost to graduation are leading scorers Cody Heston and Joe Crawford along with starting guard Josh Weis and junior Clay Metzger, who will not play this season because of a foot injury. With three seniors out of a squad of 27, Kutscher is looking to two returnees and two new varsity players to step up and help the Bears keep the program on an upward trend.

Junior guard and forward Brock McGinnis and junior guard and forward Boone Heston are the two main returnees for the Bears while junior forward Derek Brey and sophomore guard J.T. Thurston will also be looked to for good things on the court. Other varsity players will include senior forward Jake Hamm, junior guard Dillon Robbins, junior guard Colby Artman and, eventually, sophomore forwards Chase Tenpenny and Adam Paavola.

“Brock knows he needs to bring his game up a bit and Boone bulked up over the summer for football so he’s bigger than he was,” said Kutscher. “We’ll have some size mismatches, so defensively we’ve gotta pick it up more than last year. I’d say in quickness we’re about the same or mayb ea bit better than we were last year, so we’ll try and use that to our advantage. We can do a little bit more attacking on defense than we have.”

Kutscher pointed to JCN and Jackson Heights as the teams to beat in the DVL but said he hopes his team can make its mark in the race this season.

“We decreased our points-per-game-allowed by five or six last season and had a few close losses that could have gone our way,” Kutscher said. “My attitude is that we can drop that some more. Over the first couple months we may struggle somewhat but we can’t get frustrated while we figure out who we are as a team.”

With a bunch of new pieces to the varsity puzzle this season, Kutscher said despite the challenge faced going into the season he is hopeful for good things from his team.

“We’re ready for our first game,” he said. “The team has practiced really well and are hustling. Conditioning-wise, they’re looking good. They won’t be tired in the fourth quarter. The guys have come in with a really good attitude, but we have to make sure we can keep guys with fresh legs rotating into the game. Some of the younger guys will be putting in JV time and we’re hoping maybe a couple of them can step up and help us as we go down the stretch.”

Valley Falls
Coach: Caleb Gatzemeyer, second year
Last season: 7-14

Youth is the key word for Gatzemeyer in his second year as coach as he lost 11 seniors from last season’s squad and this year’s team of 24 includes only two seniors and two juniors.

The loss of the seniors who formed almost the entirety of the varsity roster last season leaves the cupboard fairly bare in terms of varsity experience for the Dragons. Two key junior varsity players from last season – junior Alan Brown and sophomore Ridge Glassel – have already been lost for the season with leg injuries so two potential varsity players won’t have a chance to contribute this season. The leading returnees are junior post player Cameron Bickford and sophomore forward Jake Massey, both of whom will be looked to for contributions in the inside game.

Gatzemeyer said senior guards Daniel Nottingham, who will also be used at forward, and Jake Wessel along with sophomore guard and forward Ray Cook, junior guard Devin Brown, sophomore guard Dylan McKnight, sophomore T.J. Breese and sophomore forward Josh Kearney will fill out the bulk of the varsity rotation.

“Varsity is wide open this year,” Gatzemeyer said. “We’ve got a few freshmen competing for varsity spots. This year’s team is pretty young but they’re pretty athletic, too. Inside we’re pretty solid and they can all run so hopefully we can push the ball up the court more and get quick easy transition baskets. That would be ideal.”

A new season with almost entirely new faces on the varsity presents a challenge for Gatzemeyer in only his second year as head coach but he said he hopes by the time substate rolls around his team is playing at its top level.

“Practice has gone pretty well, they’re going hard and the younger guys are are learning things,” Gatzemeyer said. He, too, pointed to JCN and Heights along with Pleasant Ridge as the teams to beat in the DVL. “There are a few top tier teams in the league but I think after that a lot of the teams are equal in talent.”

“The players may not think they’re ready for varsity, but I’ve told them they’re gonna have to adjust really quick, because that’s the way it is this season.”

Perry-Lecompton
Coach: Jeff Dickson, second year
Last season: 5-16

Dickson lost a third of his varsity rotation from a season ago to graduation but does return some good size and athleticism from last year’s team that had its high and low points.

One returning starter and three players that came off the bench are four parts of the six-player core of the team. The returning starter is sophomore guard Kyle Morgison while senior guard Brian Hastert and sophomore twin tower post players Joel Gantz and Andy Bowman also got some varsity experience a season ago. Dickson will also count on junior guard Caleb Denton and sophomore guard Shane Gimzo to provide key contributions. Gimzo was the leading scorer in the team’s season-opening loss to West and proved to be one of the team’s top outside shooters.

“We’ve got a group of four sophomores that are gonna be key for us this season,” Dickson said. “I really think Kyle should develop into one of the best players in the area and Shane came out in our first game and showed what he can do. Joel Gantz and Andy Bowman are our big guys inside and we’re looking for good things from them, too. The whole team put in a lot of time in the weight room over the off-season and I think that will pay off.

“We really felt like, even though we finished with only five wins, the seniors laid the foundation last year, especially in terms of strong work ethic and kids doing things the right way. The days of just putting down the ball in the off-season and not touching it are over. The kids have to be willing to work year-around and we had more kids in the weight room this summer than we’ve ever had before. That paid off in football and I think people will see the difference in basketball, too.”

Dickson’s team of 32 includes only one senior and two juniors so youth is a strong force on the Kaws. That may make for a tough road in the Kaw Valley League but Dickson said his team has brighter expectations for this season.

“This is a brutal league and we’ve finished last the last two seasons,” Dickson said. “We’re absolutely not gonna be last this year. ”

The Kaws fought back from a double-digit deficit against West to get right back in the game late before falling prey to foul trouble, and Dickson said while he appreciates the effort the players give him on the court, he knows that can sometimes work both ways.

“We played some freshmen last year and they did all right but they weren’t in the position where they were being counted on to score,” he said. “This year it’s different and I think we’re gonna be a lot better. The kids have really put out the effort. They leave everything on the floor, which can sometimes work against us because they can get a little too aggressive. Once they learn to control that and are able to back it off, I think we’ll be much better.”

McLouth
Coach: Jason Schroeder, first year
Last season: 5-16

Schroeder’s ascension to head coach came to fruition a little faster than he expected but he takes over a team with good chances to improve on 2-19 and 5-16 seasons over the past two campaigns.

The Bulldogs have 25 players out for basketball including seven seniors. Schroeder, who coached the freshmen last season in his first high school coaching stint, will look to the senior trio of forward Trevor Keling, forward Andrew Booth and guard Lance Lamborn to lead the way for McLouth this season.

“We’ll run a different style of offense than we did under coach (Chad) Brown and do a few other things differently,” Schroeder said. “We’ve worked more on the fundamentals in practice this year than in the past. I look at it as maybe taking a small step back so we can move forward better. My outlook is you can’t do anything else until you get those fundamentals down.”

Supplementing the trio of seniors will be junior guard Mark Stewart, junior guard Ryan Smith, junior forward Mike Rome, senior guard Spencer Lamborn and junior guard Vincent Brauer. Senior Danny Crouse will join the squad at some point after he recovers from an arm injury suffered during football season.

“So far things have been good – the kids have been anxious to get into game play,” Schroeder said. He also pointed to JCN and Heights as the teams to beat in the DVL. “We’ll know more after tonight (in Monday’s pigtail game to the DVL preseason tourney). With the tournament right here at the start you find out where everyone is at pretty quick. It gives you a chance to see every team and see how you measure up.”