2025-26 Basketball Preview: Hillsboro Indians

The Hillsboro Indians boys basketball program is back for another season on the court in Highland County with four returning players who started games a season ago, plus a total of seven players who played at the varsity level last season. 

The 2025-26 Hillsboro team has five seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and one freshman. The head coach for the Indians is Josh Howland, who is entering his fourth season at HHS, while the assistant coaches are Chris Fauber, Blake Kibler and Dustin Willey. 

Last season, the Indians finished 3-7 in the FAC, with an overall record of 11-13. In FAC games a season ago, the Indians averaged 49.8 points per game and allowed 55.6 ppg. In all games last season, Hillsboro averaged 56.9 ppg and allowed 53.7 ppg. 

Hillsboro’s seniors are Brady Juillerat (center), Mason Dumpert (forward), JaHari Pitts (forward), Zack Brown (forward) and Jeven Hochstuhl (guard). 

The juniors for the Indians are Jack Howland (guard) and Tre’ Captain (guard). Hillsboro’s sophomore class consists of Gaige Greer (guard), Dawson Barnett (guard) and Easton Inman (forward). The lone freshman for Hillsboro is Weston Kibler (guard). 

Of the 11 players on the roster, the four returning starters are Howland, Captain, Dumpert and Juillerat. Returning lettermen are Greer, Barnett and Inman. 

Howland last season averaged 18.1 ppg with 377 points, along with 3.1 steals per game, and he shot 81.4-percent from the free-throw line. Howland was All-Frontier Athletic Conference, first-team Coaches All-District and third-team OSPMA All-District as a sophomore.

Also for HHS, Juillerat averaged 3.3 ppg last season, while Dumpert averaged 3.5 ppg. The Indians also saw Captain (an honorable mention Coaches All-District selection last year) average 7.7 ppg a season ago. 

“We are excited to see our returning starters mentor our younger players. We have a few players with several years of experience and six players with little to zero experience in varsity games,” Howland said. 

Hillsboro has been working on being better than their record from a season ago, and though they are replacing some of their top scoring from the 2024-25 season, this year the Indians are still putting in the work needed to compete. 

“Our players did commit to the program during the offseason,” Howland said. “That will pay off as the season goes on and our younger players gain experience. The biggest positive we've seen so far is our team understands we need to continuously get better. They are very coachable and want to improve.

“We have to improve on the little things. With our younger players, it's confidence and playing physical. With our returning players, it's more of communicating and dominating the defensive end. We just expect our team to play hard and compete every game.”

Describing his team as “young and hungry to get better,” Coach Howland knows playing in the FAC isn’t an easy task, as they face many solid teams on two occasions during the season. 

“The FAC will be tough this year. Miami Trace will be looking to defend their title, Jackson and Chillicothe return most of their starters and Washington Court House returns several key players,” Howland said. 

The non-conference schedule for Hillsboro will be vs. Wilmington, vs. North Adams, at Waverly, at Portsmouth West (Battle in the 740), at Warren Local (Hocking Hills Jamboree at Logan), vs. Eastern, at Lynchburg-Clay, vs. Western Brown (Chad Hodson Classic at Fairfield), at Circleville, vs. Fairfield, at New Richmond and at Huntington.

“We have a very competitive nonconference schedule. A few tough opponents will be Circleville, Warren and Waverly. We are looking forward to playing in the Chad Hodson Classic, Battle of the 740 and Hocking Hills Holiday Classic this year,” Howland said. “We are excited about competing for our school and community this season. Our boys are working hard every day and understand we have a very difficult schedule this year.”

The Indians open the 2025-26 season on Friday, Nov. 28 at home in a non-conference game against the visiting Wilmington Hurricane. 

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