Brad Cutter
Brad Cutter is ready for practice. The recently-hired Wapahani girls basketball coach has taken stock of the returning players he will have on his roster, combined with the rising freshmen that will also be joining the program, and he is expecting a competitive atmosphere.
“When I was able to find out that there was 98 percent of the scoring coming back, and all five starters returning, plus key reserves, it was a definite plus for me,” Cutter said. “Because besides the two seniors that I’m going to lean on for this coming year, I’m going to have the majority of that team for at least two years. And that’s a huge plus for me, because not only are they talented, but everybody’s going to be there. We’ve got an 18-1 eighth-grade class coming in, so the competition in practice is going to be unbelievable.”
Cutter is coming to Wapahani after serving as a varsity assistant coach for the boys team at Lawrenceburg for the last two seasons. He previously served in a variety of capacities for the South Dearborn boys program, including serving as a varsity assistant coach and coaching at the junior varsity, freshmen and middle-school levels.
He said he hopes to utilize a style that makes other teams afraid to play the Raiders, and that he likes to utilize pressure defense and a variety of tempos.
“I don’t like to say that I have one style or philosophy,” Cutter said. “My style is we’re going to beat other teams by their weaknesses. If they can’t guard us inside, we’re going to pound it inside, which I plan to do a lot of, because I’ve got two (5-foot-9, 5-10) girls with varsity experience coming back. So we’re going to pound it inside and we’re going to make people stop us. And if they want to try to stop us inside, then we’re going to kick it out to our good shooters that I know are going to be waiting to knock them down.”
Wapahani principal Mark Fahey said he was impressed with Cutter’s desire to relocate to East Central Indiana and lead the Raiders. Cutter is scheduled to be officially approved at a board meeting on Tuesday and will teach health at Wapahani and at Selma Middle School.
“He was very energetic, very enthusiastic,” Fahey said. “He wants to be a head coach. I guess probably the biggest thing was just his commitment level.”
The new coach inherits a team that went 14-8 last season. Wapahani has won at least 10 games in each of the past 10 seasons.
Cutter replaces Terry Bales, who recently resigned both his coaching and teaching position at Wapahani. Bales (who was in his sixth season coaching the squad) did not coach for several games at the end of last season due to an ongoing police investigation.
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.
New Wapahani girls basketball coach
Newly-hired Wapahani girls basketball coach Brad Cutter will meet his players, along with other members of the school corporation, during the school day on Monday. He is also scheduled to meet with his players and their parents that evening before beginning summer workouts the following week.