Basketball Feature: Whiteoak Wildcats
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
For Whiteoak seniors Gage Carraher, Doc Seip and Luke Taggert, they have one goal they want to achieve, or more easily said, one location they want to return to during their final season as high school basketball players.
That goal and location ... the district round of the postseason at the Ohio University Convocation Center in Athens.
Getting back to the district finals, where they played as sophomores, is something this group spoke about this offseason as they prepared for their upcoming season.
All three players began their playing careers during elementary school, and they want to leave their high school careers by winning more games, which could lead them back to OU.
"It's definitely somewhere we want to get back to," Taggert said. "We are going to push every day to get back to that spot or even farther than that.
"We have to practice hard, work hard during the game, listen to our coach and do what we have to do."
"We have to play hard as a team to get back there," Carraher said.
This year, to get to that point, the Wildcats have to improve, and thus far, this senior trio feels they are stronger as a team.
The three seniors are also teammates on the baseball diamond, where all three have seen a variety of success individually or as a team. Carraher holds various pitching single-season records at WHS.
"We are stronger as a team already," Carraher said. "We've been playing since our sophomore years at varsity, and that is going to help make us even stronger in the long run."
"We've learned a lot the past two years, and last year was my first year to play full-time varsity," Taggert said. "I had OK skills, but I didn't have the experience. Now I have that experience, and it will help me and the team a lot."
Seip also spoke about how his varsity time thus far has him prepared for this season.
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"As a sophomore, I was nervous, but I got into it and it felt normal," Seip said.
Since there was just one senior last season, this group got to take leadership roles as juniors, and this year, they plan to expand on the role even more as they take lessons learned from a year ago into this new, final season.
"It means a lot our teammates count on us," Carraher said. "As for last year ... the biggest lesson was to keep fighting, even if the other team is better than you."
"It's good knowing they look up to you, knowing they'll listen to you," Taggert said. "Whenever you go through adversity, like Coach says, you need to pull through and tough it out.
"Last year, I learned to never give up, no matter the score, because there is always a chance to come back," Seip said.
The group also realizes this is it for them playing as a team on the court as high school players, as they have gone through the ranks of basketball together throughout the years.
"We know each other a lot, and it helps," Carraher said.
"What helps is knowing each other's skill levels, our strengths and weaknesses, and we work through all of that," Taggert said.
"It's nice to know each other's moves and how we can predict what the other ones will do during a game," Seip said.
As they wrapped up their thoughts on their high school basketball careers, one of the favorite moments of Taggert and Carraher involved their teammate Seip as he is known for being able to not only dunk a basketball, but dunk the ball with a bit of flair.
"It just happens," Seip said of dunking the basketball. "It's a want, and sometimes I just want to do it.
"The first time I dunked in a game was against West Union at West Union. I did miss my first dunk I tried as a sophomore."
Carraher sees the dunks a little differently.
"I'll say this ... I've never heard a crowd so loud as it was when we were in the district finals and he dunked it there the first time," Carraher said.
That goal and location ... the district round of the postseason at the Ohio University Convocation Center in Athens.
Getting back to the district finals, where they played as sophomores, is something this group spoke about this offseason as they prepared for their upcoming season.
All three players began their playing careers during elementary school, and they want to leave their high school careers by winning more games, which could lead them back to OU.
"It's definitely somewhere we want to get back to," Taggert said. "We are going to push every day to get back to that spot or even farther than that.
"We have to practice hard, work hard during the game, listen to our coach and do what we have to do."
"We have to play hard as a team to get back there," Carraher said.
This year, to get to that point, the Wildcats have to improve, and thus far, this senior trio feels they are stronger as a team.
The three seniors are also teammates on the baseball diamond, where all three have seen a variety of success individually or as a team. Carraher holds various pitching single-season records at WHS.
"We are stronger as a team already," Carraher said. "We've been playing since our sophomore years at varsity, and that is going to help make us even stronger in the long run."
"We've learned a lot the past two years, and last year was my first year to play full-time varsity," Taggert said. "I had OK skills, but I didn't have the experience. Now I have that experience, and it will help me and the team a lot."
Seip also spoke about how his varsity time thus far has him prepared for this season.
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"As a sophomore, I was nervous, but I got into it and it felt normal," Seip said.
Since there was just one senior last season, this group got to take leadership roles as juniors, and this year, they plan to expand on the role even more as they take lessons learned from a year ago into this new, final season.
"It means a lot our teammates count on us," Carraher said. "As for last year ... the biggest lesson was to keep fighting, even if the other team is better than you."
"It's good knowing they look up to you, knowing they'll listen to you," Taggert said. "Whenever you go through adversity, like Coach says, you need to pull through and tough it out.
"Last year, I learned to never give up, no matter the score, because there is always a chance to come back," Seip said.
The group also realizes this is it for them playing as a team on the court as high school players, as they have gone through the ranks of basketball together throughout the years.
"We know each other a lot, and it helps," Carraher said.
"What helps is knowing each other's skill levels, our strengths and weaknesses, and we work through all of that," Taggert said.
"It's nice to know each other's moves and how we can predict what the other ones will do during a game," Seip said.
As they wrapped up their thoughts on their high school basketball careers, one of the favorite moments of Taggert and Carraher involved their teammate Seip as he is known for being able to not only dunk a basketball, but dunk the ball with a bit of flair.
"It just happens," Seip said of dunking the basketball. "It's a want, and sometimes I just want to do it.
"The first time I dunked in a game was against West Union at West Union. I did miss my first dunk I tried as a sophomore."
Carraher sees the dunks a little differently.
"I'll say this ... I've never heard a crowd so loud as it was when we were in the district finals and he dunked it there the first time," Carraher said.