With so much changing in terms of personnel on this year’s Wes-Del boys basketball roster, the Warriors are trying to find something they can rely on each time they play.
At the outset, they hope it’s their defense.
Second-year coach John McGlothin wants to establish a stronger defensive presence. Part of it is by necessity this season as he works with a team that lacks good height, but he also wants to use that characteristic to help build consistency for the future in the Warriors’ program.
“We’re going to try to play quick, defensively at least,” McGlothin said. “We want to pressure the ball and try to make a chaotic game. We’re not big, so we want to try to use our speed as an advantage and make defense be our main offense.
“We’re going to change up defenses, work a couple of different presses, and establish the defensive end. When you’re not tall, you hope to have a little speed, which we do.”
Two of the players McGlothin hopes to be able to count on this year are Bryce Marsh and Samson Waters.
Marsh, a swingman who can play the shooting guard or small forward spots, started all of last season and is the lone returnee from a 7-14 team with extensive varsity experience.
Waters, like Marsh, is a senior who has some varsity playing experience and looks to fill a prominent role as point guard or shooting guard.
“We’re hoping Marsh can maybe even play some (power forward) for us,” McGlothin said. “And Samson, with some varsity experience, we think can handle the 1 or the 2 (positions).”
Playing time is totally up for grabs at the rest of the positions.
Junior Sam Smoot is expected to make a bid for a starting spot in the backcourt.
“He has a pretty good game,” McGlothin said. “He’s more of a shooting guard, but he can put the ball on the floor. He’s definitely in the mix.”
Smoot will be joined by junior Peyton Waters (brother of Samson) and sophomore Tevin Richards for playing time in the backcourt.
The top challengers for starting jobs in the frontcourt are sophomore Jacob Newsome, senior Jacob Love, senior T.J. Brown, sophomore Sutter Foster and senior Owen Bertsch.
Brown is trying to get healthy after suffering an injury during the football season. Bertsch, a transfer from Cambridge City, has nice size at 6-foot-5 but didn’t play much last season.
McGlothin said determining playing time likely will be a full-season process.
“It’s going to be who does the best job in practice that week, and who has earned playing time,” he said. “With a bunch of younger kids, I want them to be hungry to play, and I want the older kids to desire to have that playing time. Each week will be up for grabs.”