Three of five players from last season’s Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press return, which could make this an interesting season for local boys teams from Gibsonburg, Lake, and Woodmore.

Returning are three guards — Gibsonburg’s Gage Beaber (15.1 pts., 4.1 reb.), Lake’s Rashad Smith (17.4 pts., 2.8 asst.), and Woodmore guard/post Donny Bowen (14.1 pts., 9.5 reb.).

Throw in two second team guards returning — Eastwood’s Jacob Faykosh (12.1 pts., 3.8 asst.) and Lake’s Josh Tantari (13 pts., 5.2 steals), and the number of experienced players on the hard court increases.

Stritch 6'5" center Kyle Hatfield, who is returning for his senior year, tips off against Danbury last year. (Press photo by Doug Karns/www.katerischools.org)

But, wait, we’re not done. You can throw in three third team players — Clay guard Ross Achter (9.6 pts., 4 asst.), Northwood forward Ricky Hartley (8.9 pts., 4.5 reb.) and Gibsonburg post Logan Jones (11.5 pts., 8.7 reb.).

There are also a number of familiar faces that will be playing for different schools this year, officially referred to as transfers.

Factor in that every local school except Oak Harbor faces an adjusted league scenario and things could get interesting. For Lake, Woodmore, Eastwood, and Genoa, much of what was the Suburban Lakes League is now the Northern Buckeye Conference, except with the removal of Gibsonburg and the additions of Rossford and Fostoria.

Eastwood coach Todd Henline said his Eagles are looking forward to competing in the newly formed NBC. Eastwood won back-to-back SLL titles in 2008 and ‘09.

“From top to bottom, the league is going to be pretty competitive,” Henline said. “The title is up for grabs and three or four teams have a shot at winning the title. We’re preaching to our kids that winning the league title is one of our goals. This is one of the years it’s not going to be easy.”

The Eagles have a core of five returning lettermen to go along with good size and versatility, according to Henline. Faykosh, who led the Eagles in scoring last year, and 6-foot-4 senior post Cody Jennings are two-year lettermen. Throw in sophomore guard Jacob Schmeltz.

“Jake’s (Faykosh) going to have to score a little bit,” Henline said. “He runs the show at point. What’s going to be nice this year is, because I think Schmeltz can play the point a little bit, we can move Faykosh to the wing were he can score a little more from the wing.”

Lake coach Ryan Bowen returned to his alma mater with the belief that his up-tempo offense can run past opponents on the 94-foot home floor at Owens Community College. You can throw in more speed to help Lake do that — guard Marquis Pitts transferred from Eastwood.

“We should be experienced and athletic,” Coach Bowen said. “We have good height and we like to run. We should have the personnel to do that. Expectations are going to be high for this year’s team. We will be experienced with our seniors, but we are young with two freshmen and one sophomore. We are jelling so far. I’m really looking forward to a great year. We have a great mix of kids.”

Coach Bowen believes Otsego is the team to beat in the NBC because “they have the most players returning.”

If Woodmore is to compete for the inaugural NBC championship, they will do so in part because of Donny Bowen.

“There will be a lot of tough games played in the NBC this year,” Woodmore coach Brad Sander said, “and we need to be prepared for great competition every time we step on the floor. We fully expect to be in the mix for a league championship when February rolls around.”

Donny Bowen, a third-year varsity player, was a first-team All-SLL and All-District 7 performer last season and garnered special mention All-Northwest District honors.

“Last year Donny was strictly an inside presence for us,” Sander said. “Over the summer he really worked on his ball handling and jump shooting and is now a scoring threat from anywhere on the floor. Donny provides good leadership and he sets a good example by the way he plays the game.”

“Our expectations for this year’s team are very high,” Sander continued. “We have a good group of athletes who have worked hard at improving themselves. We’re trying to get them to understand that there are only two things that they can absolutely control every day, attitude and effort. If we can approach every day with great attitude and great effort, we’ll have a successful season.”

In the Toledo Area Athletic Conference, everyone is noticing the new guys in town. There is new member Gibsonburg, plus some new players who transferred in that could help make Cardinal Stritch Catholic a contender.

Gibsonburg coach Brent Liskai said, “It’s a different challenge. We’re not hunting down the favorites now. People got a bull’s-eye on us but when you’re led by seniors. You can go as far as those seniors want to take you. And we’ve got a great group of them.”

Coach Dave Rieker is hoping his second season at the helm of Stritch turns out better than his first. Rieker, who guided the Cardinals to a 7-15 finish last season, is optimistic after inheriting a pair of transfer students, senior shooting guard Marquise Harrison and junior point guard Dexter Williams, from Waite.

On paper, Northwood coach John Bryan said his team is standing at the bottom of the conference looking up at perennial contenders Ottawa Hills, Maumee Valley, Toledo Christian and newcomer Gibsonburg.

But games aren’t played on paper.

“There’s just nobody bad in this league,” Bryan said. “I’ll go on record and put us at the bottom. We haven’t proven anything yet. We still have to prove that we can be mentioned with the other good programs, and I think we can do that.”

Danbury coach Drew Davie sums the league up, “I would say the TAAC is stronger from top to bottom than it has ever been with the addition of Gibsonburg this season. I feel the TAAC is the deepest it has ever been.  Gibsonburg joins the league this season after coming off of a district final run last year and having all of their top players back.  Maumee Valley Country Day returns their entire team after competing for a league title a year ago. Ottawa Hills and Toledo Christian both strong teams last season, and Cardinal Stritch added some transfers. Emmanuel Christian is also a solid team this year.”

The media that covers the Sandusky Bay Conference picked Oak Harbor, which returns four lettermen, to finish eighth. However, first-year coach Eric Sweet’s fellow coaches picked them seventh.

“This is a great group of kids that works really hard,” Sweet said. “We are old when it comes to years, but we are young with varsity playing minutes. The more we get to play, the better we will become.

“We are excited about coming out and working hard and getting better,” Sweet continued. “We know we can do good things in this league, but we also know that is going to be a long road that will take work, effort, time and a true team effort. We talk about details every chance we get.”

(Press Sports Editor J. Patrick Eaken and contributing writers Mark Griffin, Nathan Lowe, and Yaneek Smith contributed to this article and also contributed to the Press previews in this week’s edition.)

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed