2017 Hillsboro Indians Preview: Can the Indians stay healthy and gain more success on the court?
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The Hillsboro Indians enter the 2017-18 season with a new outlook on basketball as they are coming off a tough season where they suffered multiple injuries and lost close games that set them back. This season could be a season of redemption for the Indians as they are in the six-team Frontier Athletic Conference, plus if they can stay healthy and on the court, they will look like a whole different team.
HHS — who was 4-19 overall — finished in sixth place in the now-defunct South Central Ohio League last season, with all four of their season wins coming within the league schedule. Their season ended in the sectional finals in a loss to the McClain Tigers at Southeastern High School in the Division II District Tournament.
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One plus for the Indians is they gained valuable experience and kept those players on the roster as they had just one senior a year ago in Ty Haithcock, as he was a valuable three-point threat for the Indians during the 2016-17 season.
The Indians open the 2017-18 season at home when they host the Eastern Brown Warriors Thursday, Nov. 30, followed by a game at Southern State’s Patriot Center in the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic in a FAC contest against the McClain Tigers.
This season, the Indians’ roster consists of 11 players (with six returning lettermen), including seniors (who have played varsity since their sophomore year) Cameron Reed, Phillip Mycroft and Marshall Ward; juniors Mason Swayne, Ethan Watson and Josh Keets; sophomores Garrison Banks, Hayden Haines and Caleb Crawford; and freshmen Jakwon Clark and Ryan Scott.
“Phillip is our post player, and he was all-league as a sophomore, a hard worker and everyone knows Phillip is going to play extremely hard every night,” HHS head coach Bruce Miles said of Mycroft after he missed most of last season with injury.
“Marshall is our floor general, athletic, fast and can get to the basket. Cameron is all energy, all the time. He’s a streaky shooter and can get hot at times. He does a lot of good things defensively and can be aggressive. I’m excited for all three seniors and seeing them lead our team.
“Ethan Watson is our leading returning scorer. He has a scorer’s mentality, and Josh Keets is a matchup problem each night for the opposing teams because he can handle the perimeter and can go into the post. We want to utilize him in the post more this year because he’s such a strong kid. We have kids who had success on the JV team last year, and I’m hoping they can contribute on the varsity team this year.”
Watson led the Indians last season with 325 points in 22 regular-season games, averaging 14.8 points per game. Next was Josh Keets with 12.2 ppg, finishing the regular season last year with 257 points in 21 games played. Also returning is Reed, who averaged 5 ppg in 22 games for HHS, as all three players were in the Top 20 scoring in Highland County last regular season.
Speaking of the injuries the Indians had last season, entering the 2017-18 season Miles said this is the healthiest his team has been in recent memory.
“Phillip returning is big for us,” he said. “Last year was a trying year, losing Phillip. He’s the heartbeat of our team, and having him back is going to be huge for us. Marshall played with a torn labrum in his shoulder last year, and he had surgery again this past summer, so he was out all summer, and backup guard Mason Swayne had the same surgery.
“This is the healthiest we’ve been in a few years, so that’s exciting going into the season. I think as far as our team, this is the deepest team I’ve had in my four years here. This is the most athletic team I’ve had here.”
Last season, the Indians finished with just four wins and let some potential wins get away due to their play on the defensive side of the court. This preseason, the Indians have worked to change that narrative by making adjustments to not just their defense, but their offense, too.
“We have to change our identity … defensively, we have to improve all across the board,” Miles said. “There were some games last year where with some of the scores, we were not going to win games with the amount of points we gave up last year. That’s what we’ve been harping on all preseason, that we must change our identity and play better defensively. That’s been our focus of what we’ve done so far in practice.
“It is a slow process as far as doing different concepts. We’ve been teaching different than we have in the past. It is a slow process, but they are embracing it and know we have to get better and refocus all of our attention to that end to be competitive.”
Miles went into more detail about the process of teaching a new offense and defense and getting it to show up on the court during practice.
“A lot of things go into changing and teaching a new defense,” Miles said. “It is guarding the basketball, it is help-side, it is communication, it is rebounding … all of those things we have to be better at. Communication is such an important part of basketball, and we have to do a better job of our rotations, and that has to improve every day of practice and it’s a focus of our season.
“We’ve changed some things on offense as well. We have so much to do and so little time … We were working on dribble drive, attacking the basket, motion concepts … we have guys who can get to the rack, and we want to take advantage of that. We want to attack the basket.
“It is going to be a slow process because we have some young kids, but with the returning kids we do have experience. The older kids have been here and they know what to expect from me, and for the younger guys, it will be a learning process. It shouldn’t take as long for our older guys to pick up some of the concepts, so I’m excited to have a veteran team … that’s exciting.”
There is also the fact the Indians will be playing in a new conference this season. Their former league — the South Central Ohio League (SCOL) — has folded, and now the Indians are members of the new Frontier Athletic Conference (FAC) and will face familiar teams such as McClain, Chillicothe, Miami Trace and Washington, also of the former SCOL. New to the mix is Jackson.
The Indians also have a tough non-conference slate with teams on the schedule such as Eastern Brown, Georgetown, Batavia, Blanchester, Fayetteville, Western Brown, Fairfield, Adena, Waverly, Goshen, Paint Valley and Lynchburg-Clay.
Within that non-conference schedule, the Indians will at one point in the season play five straight road games (four being non-conference), from Jan. 19-Jan. 30.
“We have high expectations to be competitive in our new conference, and I expect us to compete,” Miles said. “Our goal is to come out and compete night in and night out. We have great athleticism on our roster, and I’m excited for the season.
“Our non-league schedule is tough because we are in a conference of six teams. We’ve had to go out and find some games. We are playing some old (Southern Buckeye Conference) teams from when we used to be in their conference. It is a challenge finding all of those games, but every night is an opportunity to get better, and we are looking forward to each night we step onto the court.”
HHS — who was 4-19 overall — finished in sixth place in the now-defunct South Central Ohio League last season, with all four of their season wins coming within the league schedule. Their season ended in the sectional finals in a loss to the McClain Tigers at Southeastern High School in the Division II District Tournament.
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One plus for the Indians is they gained valuable experience and kept those players on the roster as they had just one senior a year ago in Ty Haithcock, as he was a valuable three-point threat for the Indians during the 2016-17 season.
The Indians open the 2017-18 season at home when they host the Eastern Brown Warriors Thursday, Nov. 30, followed by a game at Southern State’s Patriot Center in the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic in a FAC contest against the McClain Tigers.
This season, the Indians’ roster consists of 11 players (with six returning lettermen), including seniors (who have played varsity since their sophomore year) Cameron Reed, Phillip Mycroft and Marshall Ward; juniors Mason Swayne, Ethan Watson and Josh Keets; sophomores Garrison Banks, Hayden Haines and Caleb Crawford; and freshmen Jakwon Clark and Ryan Scott.
“Phillip is our post player, and he was all-league as a sophomore, a hard worker and everyone knows Phillip is going to play extremely hard every night,” HHS head coach Bruce Miles said of Mycroft after he missed most of last season with injury.
“Marshall is our floor general, athletic, fast and can get to the basket. Cameron is all energy, all the time. He’s a streaky shooter and can get hot at times. He does a lot of good things defensively and can be aggressive. I’m excited for all three seniors and seeing them lead our team.
“Ethan Watson is our leading returning scorer. He has a scorer’s mentality, and Josh Keets is a matchup problem each night for the opposing teams because he can handle the perimeter and can go into the post. We want to utilize him in the post more this year because he’s such a strong kid. We have kids who had success on the JV team last year, and I’m hoping they can contribute on the varsity team this year.”
Watson led the Indians last season with 325 points in 22 regular-season games, averaging 14.8 points per game. Next was Josh Keets with 12.2 ppg, finishing the regular season last year with 257 points in 21 games played. Also returning is Reed, who averaged 5 ppg in 22 games for HHS, as all three players were in the Top 20 scoring in Highland County last regular season.
Speaking of the injuries the Indians had last season, entering the 2017-18 season Miles said this is the healthiest his team has been in recent memory.
“Phillip returning is big for us,” he said. “Last year was a trying year, losing Phillip. He’s the heartbeat of our team, and having him back is going to be huge for us. Marshall played with a torn labrum in his shoulder last year, and he had surgery again this past summer, so he was out all summer, and backup guard Mason Swayne had the same surgery.
“This is the healthiest we’ve been in a few years, so that’s exciting going into the season. I think as far as our team, this is the deepest team I’ve had in my four years here. This is the most athletic team I’ve had here.”
Last season, the Indians finished with just four wins and let some potential wins get away due to their play on the defensive side of the court. This preseason, the Indians have worked to change that narrative by making adjustments to not just their defense, but their offense, too.
“We have to change our identity … defensively, we have to improve all across the board,” Miles said. “There were some games last year where with some of the scores, we were not going to win games with the amount of points we gave up last year. That’s what we’ve been harping on all preseason, that we must change our identity and play better defensively. That’s been our focus of what we’ve done so far in practice.
“It is a slow process as far as doing different concepts. We’ve been teaching different than we have in the past. It is a slow process, but they are embracing it and know we have to get better and refocus all of our attention to that end to be competitive.”
Miles went into more detail about the process of teaching a new offense and defense and getting it to show up on the court during practice.
“A lot of things go into changing and teaching a new defense,” Miles said. “It is guarding the basketball, it is help-side, it is communication, it is rebounding … all of those things we have to be better at. Communication is such an important part of basketball, and we have to do a better job of our rotations, and that has to improve every day of practice and it’s a focus of our season.
“We’ve changed some things on offense as well. We have so much to do and so little time … We were working on dribble drive, attacking the basket, motion concepts … we have guys who can get to the rack, and we want to take advantage of that. We want to attack the basket.
“It is going to be a slow process because we have some young kids, but with the returning kids we do have experience. The older kids have been here and they know what to expect from me, and for the younger guys, it will be a learning process. It shouldn’t take as long for our older guys to pick up some of the concepts, so I’m excited to have a veteran team … that’s exciting.”
There is also the fact the Indians will be playing in a new conference this season. Their former league — the South Central Ohio League (SCOL) — has folded, and now the Indians are members of the new Frontier Athletic Conference (FAC) and will face familiar teams such as McClain, Chillicothe, Miami Trace and Washington, also of the former SCOL. New to the mix is Jackson.
The Indians also have a tough non-conference slate with teams on the schedule such as Eastern Brown, Georgetown, Batavia, Blanchester, Fayetteville, Western Brown, Fairfield, Adena, Waverly, Goshen, Paint Valley and Lynchburg-Clay.
Within that non-conference schedule, the Indians will at one point in the season play five straight road games (four being non-conference), from Jan. 19-Jan. 30.
“We have high expectations to be competitive in our new conference, and I expect us to compete,” Miles said. “Our goal is to come out and compete night in and night out. We have great athleticism on our roster, and I’m excited for the season.
“Our non-league schedule is tough because we are in a conference of six teams. We’ve had to go out and find some games. We are playing some old (Southern Buckeye Conference) teams from when we used to be in their conference. It is a challenge finding all of those games, but every night is an opportunity to get better, and we are looking forward to each night we step onto the court.”