Sam Smoot
GASTON — Every summer, Wes-Del boys basketball coach John McGlothin takes his team down to St. Louis for a tournament. The team spends three or four days there, just being guys — a team-bonding trip. It allows McGlothin, a veteran coach in his third season with the Warriors, to see the players in a different light, and vice versa. They play several games per day at Greenville College, which is just east of the Missouri-Illinois border, and then head down to St. Louis at night to see The Arch or a Cardinals game.
These are usually the last games of the summer, a final reward for several months of hard work. But this past summer, the Warriors didn’t want to be done. So they kept playing.
“This group loves playing, they show up to everything,” McGlothin said. “Whenever we have the gym open, they’re here. It was one of those things where we’re like, ‘Hey do you guys want to go play again this weekend?’ ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
The other benefit was that it afforded McGlothin and his staff even more time to see a team which has 14 players vying for playing time – unusual depth for a Class 1A school.
“We have a bunch of people fighting for spots, so we’ve really been able to find out strengths and weaknesses,” junior Sutter Foster said. “It’s been more fun bringing all these people up and seeing how hard they’ll work to get a spot.”
Sutter Foster
McGlothin envisions a lot being done by committee, like when one guy gets it going, keep feeding him the ball. And he said it may be a season when he doesn’t stick with the same starting lineup every game. But at least initially, the Warriors – who went 8-14 last season – have a solid core in place with Foster (7.9 points per game last season), senior Sam Smoot (7.3 ppg) and senior Adam Routh (6.3 ppg).
Peyton Waters is back to run the point for a second straight season and McGlothin hopes junior Tevin Richards makes a leap in his game this season after playing in all 22 contests last season. Junior Jacob Newsome will be counted on inside, and sophomore Gavin Bullock will be in the mix at guard, as well.
Offseason track workouts have paid off, too.
“We’ve conditioned a lot more than we have in the past, and it’s shown in the gym already,” said Routh, who ran for 13 touchdowns on the gridiron in the fall. “We can make it through the whole practice without dying.”
Adam Routh
The unique part about this group, McGlothin said, is that it just seems to mesh. He can take them on as many overnight trips as he wants, but unless the seniors buy in and embrace being leaders, it doesn’t mean much.
“In drills it’s fighting to the end,” Smoot said. “And sometimes we’ll get in scuffles or whatever, but then it’s over and we’re friends again. Every day is a battle and we’re looking forward to starting the season off.”
Contact sports features writer Ryan O’Gara at (765) 213-5829. Follow him on Twitter @RyanOGaraTSP.