Fri Jul 30 2010
If there was any doubt who Western Hills’ leader on the court was last season, there’s none this year.
Four starters graduated off last year’s district runner-up squad, leaving J.T. Riddle as the lone returning starter and lone player with significant varsity experience for the Wolverines.
With Riddle as the centerpiece, Western Hills will be looking to establish itself as a young team in a young district with Frankfort High, Franklin County and Woodford County all breaking in a slew of varsity players.
“It’s going to be a young district,” WHHS coach Enoch Welch said, “but the JV district tournament last year was exciting. All the teams were talented and got after it. I really don’t think you’ll see a drop in talent from last year.”
WHHS certainly hopes it doesn’t see a drop in production from Riddle, who led the district in scoring last year as a junior, averaging 16.5 points per game to go along with 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
“Teams worked very hard to get him out of our offense,” Welch said. “They went to stop him first, so we’re going to do some things this year to get him to score, but his ability to pass the ball is going to be huge this year, too.”
Who Riddle will be passing the ball to is still being sorted out.
Juniors Marcus Howard, Jalen Clark and Jordan Barrass return after seeing limited varsity action last season.
Football players Dylan Curry, Logan Curry and Arie Sloan are also expected to see significant minutes after joining the team in November.
“They’ve got a lot to pick up in a short amount of time,” Welch said of the gridiron additions.
“They expect to win and that’s crucial. I’d rather wait for them to get out and have them coming in being successful because their attitude is great right now.”
Welch said Western Hills will use its bench more than last season, a luxury he hopes will allow the Wolverines to keep their star player fresh and expend themselves more on the defensive end.
“Our ability to go deeper this year will give us a chance to rest J.T. Last year, I don’t think we took him off the court at all,” he said.
“We need to see how far we can push our defense out on the floor and really work on wearing other teams down. We need to use that bench instead of just walking the ball up the floor. We need to push it and crash the boards. We don’t have a lot of size, but we do have better shooters than we’ve had in the past.”
The Wolverines will be unveiling a new offense this year that requires deft ballhandling from every position and an ability to hit the outside shot.
Riddle, who has been concentrating on his ballhandling and shooting as of late, said he has taken it upon himself to bring the rest of the team up to speed.
“As a senior, I feel like it’s my team,” he said. “I can help bring those other guys up, get them out there and hopefully talk to them about the difference between JV and varsity.”
No pep talk can substitute for experience, however. The Wolverines will just have to fight through the rough patches early before they get a few games under their belt.
“We just can’t get down on ourselves when we make mistakes because we are going to make some mistakes early,” Welch said. “I really like where the group is at, their attitude is great.”
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