SOUTH WHITLEY - As long as Whitko boys basketball coach Rob Irwin can keep his guys healthy, he believes he's got a pretty good team this year.
"I think this team has a chance to be as good as any I've coached," the coach with a 144-136 career record in 13 years, three at Whitko, said. "(Former coach and my father Jim Irwin) showed up for a practice, and we talked about this group being the best I've had since 2001 in (Fort Wayne) Carroll (a team that went to semistate)."Irwin's enthusiasm for the season stems from the return of 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Zac VanDeWater.
"Now's the time for him to step up to the plate and help us get to the next level," Irwin said.
As a freshman, the player with Division-I aspirations, averaged nine points, five rebounds and a steal a game. However, a back injury kept him out of nine games, making this season a bit of a statement year for the young man.
"Zac is the key," Irwin said. "The seniors are going to do their jobs, so it's up to Zac this year to say, 'This is how good I am, and this is how good I'm going to be.'"
Another source of optimism for Irwin is his son, Logan Irwin, who will take over the point guard position as a freshman.
"He is a a strong point guard," the coach said. "He has a way to make his team win. That's something he's been doing since he was at Warsaw (as an elementary and middle school player), and now at Whitko. He's a terrific penetrator and excellent on the defensive end of the floor."
When Irwin is penetrating, he'll have plenty of options to chose from, be it 6-9 senior Kaden Krull in the lane or three-point shooters VanDeWater and senior Nick Metzger.
A year ago, Metzger was a 48-percent shooter from beyond the arc and VanDeWater connected on the three-point shot at a 47-percent clip.
As well as the Wildcats may be able to hit the three-point shot, Irwin wouldn't mind seeing a lot of feeds to Krull.
"Kaden is 6-foot-9 and is learning to use his size," Irwin said. "Before, when we threw the ball inside, we didn't really know what would happen. Now, we think something positive is going to happen."
Along with Krull, the Wildcats will also feature seniors Todd Reed and Ryan Bumbaugh, junior Travis Lepper, as well as sophomores Max Elder and Travis Weigold in the frontcourt.
Joining VanDeWater and Irwin in the backcourt will be sophomores Kory Wood and Mitch Yeager.
"For the most part, we're playing a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and four seniors," Irwin said. "At times, we're going to be young."
This year's edition of the Wildcats will be without three-year starter Cory Snep, who opted not to play this season after leading Whitko in scoring a year ago. Whitko is also without the graduated Brenden Hart and Trent Rowland.
After finishing last year with a 6-15 record, losing in the first round of the sectional to Lakeland, Irwin would like to see his team do a better job of finishing games this year. Last season, Whitko racked up the losses, but only lost by an average of 5.6 points a game.
With a healthy backcourt, Irwin envisions his guys being able to apply enough defensive pressure to create some easy buckets on the other end.
"We're very long," Irwin said. "Todd Reed and Logan can put an enormous amount of pressure on the ball.
"We want to create turnovers," he added. "I've never really liked to play in the 30s and 40s."
The pressure Logan Irwin and VanDeWater apply will undoubtedly be the only pressure the young players feel. Instead of being intimidated by the varsity game, the two are AAU veterans, meaning they've already seen top competition.
"They've both played AAU, so they've seen all levels of basketball," Irwin said of the two. "Hopefully, that can cut down the learning curve, which you kind of saw with (Warsaw sophomore) Nic Moore last year. There's already so much they've seen, that it shouldn't be that big of a deal."
The two may be a couple of good players, but according to Irwin, they're not the only two in the Three Rivers Conference this season.
"The TRC is tough right now," Irwin said. "Rochester will be tough with Bruce Grimm, Southwood has two nice college prospects, North Miami has Greg Miller and Northfield has some upper-tier guys. Our conference really maintained players, but we should be in the hunt if we stay healthy."
Health is always a key, but after holding a 14-48 record in his three years at Whitko, Irwin is ready to see that record become a little more even with the young talent he has, and will have, for years to come.
