SYRACUSE - The bad news for first-year Warrior coach Jerry Davis is that he will have a lot of young players to work with this year. The good news is also that he will have a lot of young kids to work with.

In his first season at Wawasee, Davis is trying to turn the negative of a lack of experience into a positive of the chance to mold the players into his system as quickly and easily as possible.

"I think that is two-fold," Davis said. "We have a lot of young kids on the varsity, and they are not used to the system we will be using and have no experience in that. That makes our progress a little slower than we might expect at this time of the year. But the flip side of that is that we don't have to deprogram anybody.

"We are making progress each day in practice," he said. "Our kids are working very hard in what we are trying to do. It is going to take some time to put some things in, and for them to really recognize and understand what we are trying to do."

As far as experience goes, Davis won't have much to work with.

Back from last year's 9-12 squad will be guards Ryan Mikel (8.6 points per game) and Jarod Mahnensmith. Gone will be all-time Wawasee scoring leader Jim Scarbeary (22 ppg), Clint Beasley (17 ppg), Billy Heckaman (7.5) and Spencer Aalbregtse (3.9), along with coach Gary Goshert, who moved to Manchester this year.

"We are going to approach this as progress over two years," Davis said. "We have a lot of kids who will be putting on varsity uniforms for the first time, and we have 10 of them who we will have back on next year's roster. We have to convey to our kids that this will take time because they are to be thrown to the wolves right off the bat. They are going to have to lick their wounds and understand where they are and understand they are making progress throughout the year.

"We have to understand who we are and what kind of progress we are making instead of evaulate by W's and L's," he said. "We want to make sure we have a solid foundation of what we are trying to do from the very start because it will have a two-year payoff. I expect us to be by ready by tournament time."

Davis will count on Mikel and Mahnensmith to lead the other players, especially early in the season.

"There is nothing that can replace experience," Davis said. "Their (Mikel, Mahnensmith) ability to convey the difference in JV vs. varsity will be very important.

"They are two good kids, who work hard, and have led by example so far," he said. "We will expect that from them all year. Once we get into the arena during the course of a game, we expect them to be the coach on the floor and correct things that we need to have done."

Also with Mikel and Mahnensmith in the Warriors' backcourt, Davis too expects the offense to be fueled on the outside.

"We are a team that is very small and very inexperienced," he said. "We have a lot of perimeter players, and we are going to play to our strengths. I do like our quickness in our backcourt. We will just have to wait to see how our other players develop to decide what changes we might try to make and implement.

"We have guards or postmen, we don't have much in between," he said. "We are going to work to have good guard play and good play in the perimeter."

The Warriors certainly won't have the expectations, and ultimately the disappointment, of last year's team that the season before won 17 games and the Warsaw Sectional. Wawasee, facing some internal strife, struggled last year and finished with just 9 wins.

Wawasee Warriors

Coach - Jerry Davis (1st season)

Last year - 9-12 (1-5 NLC); lost in sectional first round

Key returners - Ryan Mikel, Jarod Mahnensmith

Key losses - Jim Scarbeary, Clint Beasley, Billy Heckaman

1996-97 Wawasee Roster

Name Pos. Ht. Yr.

Ryan Mikel G 5-10 12

Chad Fisher F 6-3 12

Jay Haugh G 5-9 11

Jarod Mahnensmith G 5-9 11

Justin Shilling C 6-4 11

Ryan Speicher G 6-0 11

Scott Frantz G 6-3 11

Brad Brown G 6-0 11

R.J. Nethaway F 6-1 10

Jordan Bender C 6-4 11

Kirk Kaiser C 6-3 10

Brody Stipp C 6-5 11

1996-97 Wawasee Schedule

Nov. 26 FAIRFIELD

Nov. 30 at Mishawaka

Dec. 7 DEKALB

Dec. 13 WARSAW

Dec. 20 at Tippy Valley

Dec. 21 at SB Riley

Dec. 27 at Goshen Tour.

Dec. 28 at Goshen Tour.

Jan. 10 at Plymouth

Jan. 11 WEST NOBLE

Jan. 17 NORTHRIDGE

Jan. 24 at Goshen

Jan. 25 at Triton

Jan. 31 WHITKO

Feb. 1 at East Noble

Feb. 7 at Concord

Feb. 8 at Manchester

Feb. 14 NORTHWOOD

Feb. 15 BREMEN

Feb. 21 WESTVIEW [[In-content Ad]]