Squires Young, But Boast Experience
November 15, 2017 at 5:45 p.m.
Squires Young, But Boast Experience
By Dale [email protected]
Second-year coach Mark?Underwood, however, has some experience to build this year’s team around as the Squires return four of their top six players from a year ago.
“We have two seniors on the team ... Mason Hamby is back, and he was our leading scorer and leading rebounder last year. We also have Koehl Fluke, and Koehl has been on the varsity since he was a freshman here at Manchester,” said Underwood. “We’re looking to those two guys for leadership, and to bring some quality play to the floor.
“We also return two of our other top six players from last year, they’re both juniors. Brayden Casper was a starter, and our sixth man was Kam Lester.
“We return four of our top six from last year. We are missing two starters from last year, but we had a JV team that kept getting better all year. Even though we’ve only got two seniors, we do have seven juniors, nine sophomores and nine freshman in the program. We’ve got some good numbers and some quality players coming up.”
Manchester’s 12-man varsity roster includes seniors Hamby and Fluke; juniors Casper, Lester, Logan Parrett, Isaiah Davis, Mason Meyer, Andrew McAtee and Konrad Borgmann; and sophomores Thane Creager and Austin Underwood.
The Squires, who open the season Nov. 22 when they host Mississinewa, were 8-17 overall and 5-4 in the Three Rivers Conference last year.
Manchester lost 11 of their first 14 games last season, but found its way in the sectional, beating Lewis Cass and Rochester before falling 54-49 to Southwood in the championship game.
Underwood wants that postseason momentum to carry into this season, and returning four of his team’s top six players from a year ago is a good start.
“Those four guys played a bunch of minutes,” said Underwood. “We’re going to rely on them a lot.
“We are gonna miss David McAtee for sure ... he’s a player that meant a lot to us, not only what you saw on the floor but also from a leadership standpoint.
“We’re gonna have to have some guys step up, because all four of those guys we talked about returning are guard-type players. We’re gonna have to have some of our younger players that don’t have a lot of experience step up and take care of business in the forward and center spots.”
Mason Hamby led the Squires with nearly 14 points and five rebounds per game last year, while Fluke chipped in with nearly 12 points and three boards.
Following the Nov. 22 season opener against Mississinewa, Manchester hosts Oak Hill on Nov. 25 and then plays road games at Wawasee (Dec. 1), Huntington North (Dec. 9) and TRC foe Southwood.
The Wabash County Tournament is slated for Dec. 29 and 30.
“We’ve had a bunch of guys work really hard in the offseason,” said Underwood, a former Manchester player himself and longtime coach of the Lady Squires.
“We went to shootouts on Saturdays, we played in the YMCA league in Wabash once a week, we went to the Super Hoops overnight camp, we had open gyms, we had weight lifting, and we had great numbers for all of that stuff.
“Not everybody did everything, but I’m very pleased with the effort in the offseason.”
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Second-year coach Mark?Underwood, however, has some experience to build this year’s team around as the Squires return four of their top six players from a year ago.
“We have two seniors on the team ... Mason Hamby is back, and he was our leading scorer and leading rebounder last year. We also have Koehl Fluke, and Koehl has been on the varsity since he was a freshman here at Manchester,” said Underwood. “We’re looking to those two guys for leadership, and to bring some quality play to the floor.
“We also return two of our other top six players from last year, they’re both juniors. Brayden Casper was a starter, and our sixth man was Kam Lester.
“We return four of our top six from last year. We are missing two starters from last year, but we had a JV team that kept getting better all year. Even though we’ve only got two seniors, we do have seven juniors, nine sophomores and nine freshman in the program. We’ve got some good numbers and some quality players coming up.”
Manchester’s 12-man varsity roster includes seniors Hamby and Fluke; juniors Casper, Lester, Logan Parrett, Isaiah Davis, Mason Meyer, Andrew McAtee and Konrad Borgmann; and sophomores Thane Creager and Austin Underwood.
The Squires, who open the season Nov. 22 when they host Mississinewa, were 8-17 overall and 5-4 in the Three Rivers Conference last year.
Manchester lost 11 of their first 14 games last season, but found its way in the sectional, beating Lewis Cass and Rochester before falling 54-49 to Southwood in the championship game.
Underwood wants that postseason momentum to carry into this season, and returning four of his team’s top six players from a year ago is a good start.
“Those four guys played a bunch of minutes,” said Underwood. “We’re going to rely on them a lot.
“We are gonna miss David McAtee for sure ... he’s a player that meant a lot to us, not only what you saw on the floor but also from a leadership standpoint.
“We’re gonna have to have some guys step up, because all four of those guys we talked about returning are guard-type players. We’re gonna have to have some of our younger players that don’t have a lot of experience step up and take care of business in the forward and center spots.”
Mason Hamby led the Squires with nearly 14 points and five rebounds per game last year, while Fluke chipped in with nearly 12 points and three boards.
Following the Nov. 22 season opener against Mississinewa, Manchester hosts Oak Hill on Nov. 25 and then plays road games at Wawasee (Dec. 1), Huntington North (Dec. 9) and TRC foe Southwood.
The Wabash County Tournament is slated for Dec. 29 and 30.
“We’ve had a bunch of guys work really hard in the offseason,” said Underwood, a former Manchester player himself and longtime coach of the Lady Squires.
“We went to shootouts on Saturdays, we played in the YMCA league in Wabash once a week, we went to the Super Hoops overnight camp, we had open gyms, we had weight lifting, and we had great numbers for all of that stuff.
“Not everybody did everything, but I’m very pleased with the effort in the offseason.”
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