Members of the Wildcat Varsity Basketball team enjoyed a night off Friday, December 9, and attended the Ladycats’ contest against the visiting White Pigeon Chiefs. Left to right are junior Nate Mihills, and sophomores Beau Ferguson, Parker Adams, and Quinton Tone.
Photo courtesy of Megan Schuur Photography
Focus. Maturity. Playing like a team. The initial scouting report on the 2022-23 Boys Varsity Basketball team is a thumbs-up even though the youthful Wildcats squad dropped its opening game against Lawton, 54-48, Tuesday, December 6.
“They’ve matured a lot,” Head Coach Troy Kahler reports. “They absorb everything. You tell them what we need to do, and they go do it.”
Varsity Basketball Head Coach Troy Kaher
From the perspective of the scorers’ table, the players have done a lot during the off season. The difference between the level of play from last season to this season is in-your-face growth. The tempo of the first half of the Lawton game was unrelenting, an almost bucket for bucket race against the Blue Devils. In other words, this team is fun to watch. But this team is young and young players can and do grow fatigued, which tempered the ‘Cats gusto in the third quarter. While Lawton was substituting two to three players at a time, Marcellus mostly kept to its starting five, because numbers continue to be a challenge.
This season’s roster includes eight players: senior Christian Klusman, juniors Dawsen Lehew, Nathan Mihills, and newcomer Austin Hartford, and sophomores Parker Adams, Quinton Tone, Beau Ferguson, and Yona Goodlow.
“Although we’re young and slim on numbers, I think we can compete with most of the teams in the league. Centreville will be a good measuring stick on Friday (December 16), because I know how they can play. The question for us is, ‘how will we respond?’”
The ‘Cats are getting plenty of opportunities to answer that question and gain valuable experience before Christmas break. They’re playing five games in ten days. The goal, especially of late, is to stay healthy, out of foul trouble, and get in shape.
Kahler has plenty of admiration and affection for his players but gives special credit to junior Nate Mihills.
“I don’t know if you noticed the difference, but Nate looks like a completely different athlete this year.”
Acccording to Kahler, Mihills, a multi-sport athlete who lives with diabetes, continues to surprise him.
“I saw Nate this summer and thought he’s looking better. Then I saw him on the football field and thought, man, he’s just faster. The first night of basketball practice, he goes up for a jump ball and just jumps up, grabs the rim, and comes down. I reminded him that he couldn’t come within a foot of doing that last year. He said, ‘I know, right?’”
Still Kahler wasn’t convinced of what he was witnessing and lined up the players to see who’s gotten faster this year. So, they ran.
“Even though Nate was first, I told them I really wanted to see who is the fastest thinking that I was seeing things. We ran again. He blew everybody away.
“I asked myself, how is Nate faster than Yona and Dawsen and Parker? We ran about four times and then I pitted just Yona against Nate and Nate could beat him.”
Mihills attributes much of his improvement to going up “really hard on my tiptoes” during squats. Kahler says it’s improved Nate’s speed and side to side agility.
“He’s a different athlete.”
Photo courtesy of Megan Schuur Photography
Kahler also looks for good things from transfer student Austin Hartford, who even though a junior, is more than willing to play as much as he can on JV and some on Varsity to gain experience. Coach also sees how experience will be beneficial for sophomores Yona Goodlow and Quinton Tone, who got their first real taste of Varsity basketball during the Lawton game. Sophomores Parker Adams and Beau Ferguson came ready to play last week, both showing confidence and budding leadership abilities against the Blue Devils. Add the relentless focus of junior Dawsen Lehew to the mix and you’ve got an exciting team to watch.
As long as they stay healthy, out of foul trouble and in shape.
According to Kahler, endurance is on Assistant Coach Christopher Reed’s radar.
“We’re going to get those boys in shape,” Reed said to Kahler, “and we’re going to be able to press in spots to create some easy stuff for us.”
And it’s going to be fun to watch . . .
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