By Chad Hayworth (for ozarkssportszone.com)
For Seneca boys basketball coach Skip Brock, the forthcoming season is just like putting together a puzzle.
Except that he doesn’t know what pieces he’ll have or when he’ll have them, how they might fit in, or even when he’ll know. And all of the other puzzle-solvers around him will have weeks to work on their own puzzles before he likely gets started.
Such is the lot of a winter sports coach in Seneca, waiting to see when the football Indians’ season ends, and which players from Coach Cody Hilburn’s squad will join in.
Not that Brock is complaining, far from it.
“Both of my sons were high school quarterbacks,” he said. “I think high school athletes should compete in as many sports as they can.”
Three members of the football Indians, senior Roman Miller and juniors Jagger Wilson and Aiden Crane, figure to play key roles for Brock this winter.
Wilson is the only returning player that consistently started last season. He averaged 7 points per game as a sophomore. He is committed to play baseball at the University of Oklahoma.
Miller, who was a spot starter, was often called on for a defensive spark as primarily the sixth man.
“He is a really outstanding athlete, who plays hard and is extremely coachable,” Brock said. “The way he works and how hard he plays will be an example to our younger players.”
Crane, at 6-foot-5, is the tallest player on the roster. He saw action in 14 games a year ago, averaging 1.1 points and rebounds per contest.
Seneca went 9-16 in Brock’s first year coaching the Indians, including a 4-4 record in the Big 8. But with four starters and a key reserve lost to graduation, Brock is starting over almost from scratch.
“You never know, when you get a young team, how everybody is going to react,” he said. “I do think we have a high ceiling as to what we can become later in the season.
“There have been maybe one or two other times in my coaching career when I’ve had so little varsity personnel back. We’ve got some juniors, sophomores and freshmen that will all be competing for an opportunity, but right now, it’s hard to say exactly who is going to play.”
The group of newcomers includes juniors Easton Hanes, Aiden Beauchamp, Hayden Moser and Jordan Sims. Sophomore competing for a varsity spot include Klay Davidson, Lynden Steadman, Blake Thompson and Jaxon Yoakam.
The Indians’ schedule is another nod to the uncertainties created by a football team expected to make a deep run in the state playoffs.
Seneca won’t play a game until December 10, at the Mustang Classic in McDonald County. That’s a full two weeks after most high school programs have started playing.
In addition to the McDonald County tournament, Seneca has three others on the schedule, also an unusual move.
Seneca will play in the Southwest holiday tournament, the Crane Invitational and the Lancer Classic at Southeast High School in Cherokee, Kan.
“Last year, we had to squeeze in so many regular-season games in the last part of the schedule, we didn’t have enough practice time to correct things,” Brock said. “By playing more tournaments, we hope to get more practice time, which will be a big plus for a young team.”
Brock said he feels as if he’s still working to build a foundation for Seneca basketball.
“That’s why we spend so much time getting the underclassmen to understand why they make this cut at this spot, or why we screen like this, or what the next cut after the screen has to be,” he said. “Emphasizing the building of little habits give us a chance to show these young guys that this thing can be really good in the future.”
