2017 Fairfield Lions Preview: How quickly will the Lions learn the varsity game entering a new era?
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Having three seniors and a new head coach, the Fairfield Lions boys basketball team is entering a new era with a mix of some varsity experience and youth as Josh Howland has been tabbed to lead the Lions this season.
Howland has coached at all levels for Fairfield, with last year being an assistant varsity coach and the head coach for the JV team – a team that went 40-4 the past two seasons – with many of the same players who will be on the varsity roster this year.
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With Howland taking over for retired head coach Everett Snyder, Howland said he wasn’t sure what to expect when he became the head coach, but he’s happy with how things have gone thus far before the start of the regular season in his first year at the helm of the Lions.
There is one thing he knows, and that is he has players willing to put in the extra work needed to improve on their game.
The Lions have a total of 11 players on their varsity roster, with seniors being Tucker Ayres, Quinton Beatty and Cody Gragg. There are four juniors, as they are Sam Buddelmeyer, Bennett Hodson, Austin Setty and Phoenix Taylor. The sophomores are James Bentley, Ethan Saunders, Bryson Simmons and Wyatt Willey.
“All three of our returners are leaders,” Howland said. “One of them is the point guard, Cody Gragg, so he leads. Our vocal leader is Quinton Beatty, and Tucker Ayres is not a talker, but he leads by example. He’s the first one in here, last one to leave and goes hard. If he gets on one of the other players, they know they’ve done something wrong.”
In 21 of 22 regular-season games played last season, Gragg is the highest returning scorer for the Lions at 7.8 ppg, and Ayres averaged 6.4 ppg in the same number of games during the regular season.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. With summertime, I’ve got some kids that play other sports, so I won’t see them,” Howland said. “These kids work super hard. Most of these guys were JV last year, but they’re hard workers. We have three returning lettermen — Tucker Ayres, Cody Gragg and Quinton Beatty — they’re all three hard workers. Tucker and Cody were in here with me one day until 7 in the evening, and we started practicing at 2:45. If this gym’s open, they’re in here working. That’s what you want.”
What will be of interest to many this season with the Fairfield team is how many of the players transform their game from the junior varsity style to playing at the varsity level, which is a big difference as Howland said that is one of the “biggest things” with his roster entering the season.
“The biggest thing — and we thought it would be the biggest thing — is transitioning from JV to varsity,” he said. “Since we’re trying to transition basically seven or eight players from JV to varsity, the speed of the game in our scrimmage and just every day in practice shows we waste half a step here, half a step there and it costs us buckets at the other end.
“That’s the number-one most difficult thing for us to overcome right now. Actually, we score quick, usually. We did last year, but it’s not quick compared to the varsity level.”
The reason for all of the turnover with the roster of the Lions is the fact last year’s sectional champion team that played in the district semifinals at the Ohio University Convocation Center graduated a total of six seniors in Klay Walker, Kayden Lamb, Wyatt Evans, Jensen Daulton, Mason Cain and Jesse Current. In 21 of their 22 regular-season games last season, Daulton averaged 16.1 ppg, followed by Evans at 12 ppg, Current at 11.9 ppg and Walker at 5.4 ppg.
With the changes within the roster, the offense and defense will be different for the Lions under Howland.
“The offense and defense will be somewhat different,” he said. “It will have to be because the game is quicker than what we are right now. If we had been gelled together and we would have had better chemistry, I think we could have run the ball more at the beginning, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to at the beginning of the season.”
With the Lions still working on their offense, like many other teams, the focus will be on how well they play on the defensive side of the ball.
“Defense is always a focus for us. We’ll look to pressure the ball,” Howland said. “There’ll be no pack line for us. We’ll play on the line, court-on-court basketball and rotate from there. We have the personnel to do it. We’re slow right now, but hopefully we get them where they need to be.”
With the season nearing and the learning still going on for the new-look Lions, the goals are still the same in winning the SHAC Division II championship and getting back to the Convo for the district tournament and beyond.
“We want to win the SHAC, and to me, I want to at least make a (district) appearance this year,” Howland said. “I don’t think that’s too far-fetched, either one of them, really. There are some good teams that are going to be in our district.”
Besides their strong SHAC schedule, the Lions’ non-conference schedule includes: East Clinton (at the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, Dec. 2), Paint Valley (Dec. 5), Georgetown (Dec. 21), Cedarville (Jan. 6), McClain (Jan. 9), Hillsboro (Jan. 16), Clermont Northeastern (Jan. 20) and Blanchester (Feb. 3).
The Lions open the season on Dec. 1 at Manchester in a SHAC contest.
Howland has coached at all levels for Fairfield, with last year being an assistant varsity coach and the head coach for the JV team – a team that went 40-4 the past two seasons – with many of the same players who will be on the varsity roster this year.
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With Howland taking over for retired head coach Everett Snyder, Howland said he wasn’t sure what to expect when he became the head coach, but he’s happy with how things have gone thus far before the start of the regular season in his first year at the helm of the Lions.
There is one thing he knows, and that is he has players willing to put in the extra work needed to improve on their game.
The Lions have a total of 11 players on their varsity roster, with seniors being Tucker Ayres, Quinton Beatty and Cody Gragg. There are four juniors, as they are Sam Buddelmeyer, Bennett Hodson, Austin Setty and Phoenix Taylor. The sophomores are James Bentley, Ethan Saunders, Bryson Simmons and Wyatt Willey.
“All three of our returners are leaders,” Howland said. “One of them is the point guard, Cody Gragg, so he leads. Our vocal leader is Quinton Beatty, and Tucker Ayres is not a talker, but he leads by example. He’s the first one in here, last one to leave and goes hard. If he gets on one of the other players, they know they’ve done something wrong.”
In 21 of 22 regular-season games played last season, Gragg is the highest returning scorer for the Lions at 7.8 ppg, and Ayres averaged 6.4 ppg in the same number of games during the regular season.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. With summertime, I’ve got some kids that play other sports, so I won’t see them,” Howland said. “These kids work super hard. Most of these guys were JV last year, but they’re hard workers. We have three returning lettermen — Tucker Ayres, Cody Gragg and Quinton Beatty — they’re all three hard workers. Tucker and Cody were in here with me one day until 7 in the evening, and we started practicing at 2:45. If this gym’s open, they’re in here working. That’s what you want.”
What will be of interest to many this season with the Fairfield team is how many of the players transform their game from the junior varsity style to playing at the varsity level, which is a big difference as Howland said that is one of the “biggest things” with his roster entering the season.
“The biggest thing — and we thought it would be the biggest thing — is transitioning from JV to varsity,” he said. “Since we’re trying to transition basically seven or eight players from JV to varsity, the speed of the game in our scrimmage and just every day in practice shows we waste half a step here, half a step there and it costs us buckets at the other end.
“That’s the number-one most difficult thing for us to overcome right now. Actually, we score quick, usually. We did last year, but it’s not quick compared to the varsity level.”
The reason for all of the turnover with the roster of the Lions is the fact last year’s sectional champion team that played in the district semifinals at the Ohio University Convocation Center graduated a total of six seniors in Klay Walker, Kayden Lamb, Wyatt Evans, Jensen Daulton, Mason Cain and Jesse Current. In 21 of their 22 regular-season games last season, Daulton averaged 16.1 ppg, followed by Evans at 12 ppg, Current at 11.9 ppg and Walker at 5.4 ppg.
With the changes within the roster, the offense and defense will be different for the Lions under Howland.
“The offense and defense will be somewhat different,” he said. “It will have to be because the game is quicker than what we are right now. If we had been gelled together and we would have had better chemistry, I think we could have run the ball more at the beginning, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to at the beginning of the season.”
With the Lions still working on their offense, like many other teams, the focus will be on how well they play on the defensive side of the ball.
“Defense is always a focus for us. We’ll look to pressure the ball,” Howland said. “There’ll be no pack line for us. We’ll play on the line, court-on-court basketball and rotate from there. We have the personnel to do it. We’re slow right now, but hopefully we get them where they need to be.”
With the season nearing and the learning still going on for the new-look Lions, the goals are still the same in winning the SHAC Division II championship and getting back to the Convo for the district tournament and beyond.
“We want to win the SHAC, and to me, I want to at least make a (district) appearance this year,” Howland said. “I don’t think that’s too far-fetched, either one of them, really. There are some good teams that are going to be in our district.”
Besides their strong SHAC schedule, the Lions’ non-conference schedule includes: East Clinton (at the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, Dec. 2), Paint Valley (Dec. 5), Georgetown (Dec. 21), Cedarville (Jan. 6), McClain (Jan. 9), Hillsboro (Jan. 16), Clermont Northeastern (Jan. 20) and Blanchester (Feb. 3).
The Lions open the season on Dec. 1 at Manchester in a SHAC contest.