SOUTH WHITLEY – Everybody who cares knows Whitko’s boys basketball team is led statistically by junior Nate Walpole. After all, he’s averaging better than 27 points a game. But Walpole’s leadership role has expanded in other ways since last season, according to Wildcat head coach Roger Fleetwood. “If you saw him in practice, he talks constantly. He’s always encouraging everybody, he’s really learned to be a vocal leader,” Fleetwood said. “Last year he wasn’t a vocal leader, he led by example on the floor, but he really didn’t know how to lead vocally. “We talked about that last May and how important that was, and that he needed to start building bonds and trust with his teammates, and he started doing that all summer. He’s always one of those guys who laughing and joking in the locker room. He’s talking constantly in practice; no negatives. That’s one thing we don’t allow is the players to get on each other. That’s my job. So he’s leading positively, and that means a lot. “And they know who the leader is. The reason we’re pretty decent is that everybody knows the pecking order on this team. They know who the best player is, the second-best player is, and on down the line. And everybody accepts their roles and that’s why we’ve become decent.” There is also an element of toughness provided by senior Tanner Gaff, who leads the team with almost nine rebounds a game. “(Gaff) just goes to war every game,” Fleetwood said. “John Snyder, the new principal here at Whitko, said he loves to watch Tanner play, because he goes to war without any fanfare. Nobody really notices, but he’s in the paint bangin’ for 32 minutes.” Gaff is getting help from freshman Spencer Sroufe, who has been a great addition but hardly a surprise to Fleetwood. “We were bringing (Sroufe) along, and we hoped after Christmas he would start playing more varsity basketball, and he did. We even started him one game, but he felt uncomfortable starting, so he comes off the bench for us now,” Fleetwood said. “But there’s no doubt that we thought we would be at our best if he came along, and he has. He still has a long way to go, but he’s made great gains this year. Sophomore River West would be the leading scorer on a lot of teams at just under 16 points a game, and senior Devon Adkins adds better than eight points and four rebounds per game. Fleetwood said for the Wildcats to have success in the 2A Westview Sectional, which begins with a game against Bremen at 7 p.m. Tuesday, they’ll need to take care of business when they don’t have the ball. “We have to play solid defense to start off with; we’ve been up and down defensively all year,” he said. “We’ve won 13 games more because of our offense; we shoot the ball pretty well. And if we shoot the ball particularly well, it’s going to be a good team that knocks us out this week. “When we shoot well, we’re pretty hard to beat. We’ve beaten some really talented teams like Maconaquah, Manchester and Peru, but all three nights we had good shooting nights. If we shoot the ball well on Tuesday, we’ll be around on Friday, and if we shoot well on Friday, we’ll be around on Saturday, and so on. “But something that could assure us is if we’re consistent defensively and really make the other team work for their points, and continue to play well on the boards and take care of the ball. We’re averaging only about 10 or 11 turnovers a game, and that’s pretty good for high school.” Having more than doubled its win total from the previous season, Whitko is seeing the benefits of the offseason work it put in, as well as a change in expectations. “We had a great attitude last year, we just weren’t skilled enough to be very good,” said Fleetwood. “But we brought back a lot of experience, they worked hard to get better and stronger over the summer, and we’re tougher mentally. “Now we expect to win instead of hope to win.” With a win, Whitko would take on Westview in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday. The championship game will be at 7 p.m. Saturday.
