Wawasee Looking Forward, Leaving Past BehindSYRACUSE – Wawasee High School’s boys basketball team is leaving its past behind. New head coach Jon Everingham brought in a new coaching staff, is implementing a new attitude, and making a point to leave the past behind. That’s just as well for the Warriors, who are in the midst of a 35-game, five-year losing streak in the Northern Lakes Conference. In other words, this year’s seniors were sixth graders the last time Wawasee won a conference game, a 54-52 victory at Goshen on Feb. 10, 2011. The Warriors were 2-21 overall last year and 34-79 over the last five seasons. “(The NLC streak) has not been a topic of conversation. I think other than some people from the media are making a big deal of it, to be honest,” Everingham said. “I know it’s kind of cliché-ish, but our guys right now are only concerned with this week and today, and certainly I’ve not had any conversations with the team about any other NLC team. “We do have some guys with varsity experience, and we’re really excited about those guys. Now, obviously they’re stepping in to a new program, a new coach, and new philosophies. We’re expecting that to take a little bit of time.” Everingham has high expectations for the team, but is realistic about how that might translate into the ‘W’ column. “We want to win. Right now, we’re in the process of explaining what winners do, and we’re not going to be shy about talking about winning, and what it takes to win, not only on the scoreboard, but in everyday life, everyday practice, and we’re talking about winning a lot.” Everingham said. “It’s my belief that if we continue to talk about winning, and we start experiencing little victories here and there, whether it be drills or attendance in school or academic progress, then the winning attitude, and the winning culture, will come. Then the score on the scoreboard will take care of itself.” Competition for minutes on the floor is high in the preseason. “We’re going to be deeper than what I’ve experienced as a coach. We literally have nine or 10 guys that could be considered our best player,” said Everingham. “We’re hoping to use that to our advantage. The competition in practice is really fierce, to be perfectly honest. We’re promoting competition early on in practice because the difference between our No. 2 player and our No. 8 player is very, very tight.” Three seniors are expected to provide leadership for a young squad. “Tyler Smith is our leading returning scorer from last year, and he’s coming off a great football season,” Everingham said. “He’s established himself as the leader of our team, and we’re looking for him to carry the load in terms of leadership, and showing the way. He’s an outstanding competitor. His No. 1 quality is he loves to compete. We need his will to win to be very contagious, and I think if we can do that, we can be successful. “Tim Conley is another senior who played a little bit of JV and a little bit of varsity last year. He’s a very smart player who’s going to fit very well into my system. The other senior is Cameron Schlabach, who’s a good shooter who came on late last year, and played some spirited minutes. We look for him to be in the mix for some minutes.” Everingham said he wants Wawasee fans to know his team will put forth the effort needed to win from the beginning. “I really believe the people that are here want to change, and the kids are willing to put in the work. And we’re going to come out guns a blazin’.” he said. “We’re going to play really hard, and there’s not going to be a team on our schedule that’s going to out-work us. We’re going to play very physical, and at the same time we’re going to be patient with our development. We’re not going to put a lot of weight in our record, especially early on, but we’re going to get better and eventually we’re going to get there.” Wawasee opens its season by hosting Fairfield at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Hardwood Tepee.
