Coming off its first sectional title in program history, Bethesda Christian will have a lot of holes to fill.

The Patriots graduated 10 seniors, three of which — Cameron Roark, Mike West, and Justin Oglesby — combined for 44.3 points and 14.4 rebounds per game.

“The tangibles — scoring and defense — are tough to replace,” head coach Darin Grice said. “But the intangibles, like leadership, might be the hardest things to replace.”

However, Grice is still confident his team can compete at a high level.

In the post, the Patriots will lean on 6-foot-5 sophomore George Wion and 6-foot-6 junior Josh Bush, a transfer from Brownsburg.

“We are really excited about that kind of size in the post,” Grice said. “Especially at the Class 1A level.”

With a small senior class, Bethesda will turn to senior guards Sklyer Kelso and Drew Phillips — who both got plenty of experience during the Patriots’ tournament run last season.

“They are a couple of senior guards who got some good playing time last year,” Grice said. “Hopefully we can mesh the senior leadership with our young athleticism and size.”

Junior John Stroup returns after missing a good portion of last season recovering from an ACL injury.

“He may surprise some people, he’s got good ball-handling skills and will help us a lot at the point guard position,” Grice said.

Junior Levi Marshall — a Danville transfer — will also help the Patriots at the guard spot.

Last season, Bethesda finished 17-8 and won nine of its last 10 contest before falling in the regional final to eventual state champion Jac-Cen-Del.

Bethesda gets things started at Clinton Central Dec. 4.

“We may take a few lumps early,” Grice said. “But hopefully we’ll have a short learning curve and get back to where we were last season.”



Plainfield

A new era is set to begin at Plainfield.

Clay Bolser will stroll the sidelines for the Quakers, replacing 21-year coach Dana Greene, who retired after last season.

Bolser coached nine years — compiling an 88-99 record — at Northeastern, a Class 2A school in Fountain City.

To put his stamp on the program, Bolser said one of his first objectives is to build relationships with the lower-level basketball teams in the school system.

“There’s a transition period,” Bolser said. “It’s going to take some time when you have a system that’s been ran for 21 years and now a new guy comes in. There’s always going to be some kind of a hurdle that has to be gone over.”

Plainfield loses plenty of talent from a year ago.

Leaving a huge hole to fill near the basket is graduated senior Blake Metcalf, a 6-foot-9 center now playing at Division I University of Albany (N.Y.). Metcalf averaged 16.8 points and 12.4 rebounds per game last season. The Quakers also graduated leading scorer Brian Mucho (17.2 ppg) and starting point guard Ben Hamlin.

The Quakers will lean on junior Chris Page for points.

Page averaged 16.7 points per game last season as a sophomore and shot 42 percent from beyond the arc.

“He has done a tremendous job of improving his overall game,” Bolser said. “He continues to shoot the ball very well. He’s put on a little weight and strength in the offseason and has worked very hard in conditioning.”

Junior Garrett Hanna is the only other returning player with significant varsity experience.

Fresh faces make up the rest of the roster.

Seniors Zach Cox and Adrian Boyd, juniors Zach Johnson, Corey Brackney, Gavin Walker, and Alec Smith, and sophomore Eli Wheeler make up the rest of the team.

Freshman Luke Jones will dress varsity but likely play JV.

Plainfield went 13-9 last season and won the county championship before falling to No. 11-ranked Terre Haute South in the sectional semifinal.

“Our ultimate goal has to be not only to win a game in the sectional, but strive to win the sectional,” Bolser said. “Plainfield is a school in a community that strives for excellence, and that has to be our main goal every year.”



Danville

Led by an experienced roster of nothing but juniors and seniors, Danville is looking to have a big year in 2009-10.

The Warriors return six seniors and three varsity starters from a year ago, when they went 17-5 and were ranked No. 5 in Class 2A.

Purdue-bound senior Travis Carroll will again patrol the paint for the Warriors. The 6-foot-10 center averaged 22 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game last season.

“Travis just keeps adding a little more things each year,” Danville coach Brian Barber said. “He’s really developed a nice jump hook with both his left and right hand. He’s running the floor a lot better and we’re hoping to get him more baskets in transition.”

The Warriors return two other players from last year’s starting five — senior Michael Humphrey and junior Tyler Hall. Humphrey averaged 10.1 ppg last season, while Hall — a transfer from Speedway — averaged 11.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in his first year as a Warrior.

Danville welcomes another transfer this year in senior Jordan Weidner, who previously played at Franklin Central.

“If you just showed up and didn’t know he moved in here in June, you’d think he’s been here his whole career,” Barber said. “The younger kids look up to him and the older guys have accepted him. He’s been good from day one.”

Other key returners include seniors Kyle Mackey, Austin Chalfant, and Trent Schaffer.

The Warriors finished as co-champions of the Sagamore Conference last year, and are looking to advance further into sectionals. Conference-rival North Montgomery eliminated Danville 55-51 in last year’s sectional semifinal.



Tri-West

First-year head coach Adam Bontreger looks to bring an exciting brand of basketball to the court at Tri-West this season.

Led by senior guard Randall Lowe (17 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.7 apg), the Bruins will feature an up-tempo attack.

“We’ll be up-tempo and will definitely be a transition team that will get up and down the court,” Bontreger said. “We’ll have to outwork our opponents by beating them up and down the floor.”

The Bruins graduated a pair of productive post players in Jake Allen and Sam Groth — both 6-foot-4 — and Bontreger hopes junior Tyler Waite can help fill the void.

“I think he can surprise a lot of people,” he said. “He’s a kid that has grown into his 6-6 frame. He’s very versatile and we can use him in a lot of different ways.”

Other key returners for the Bruins are seniors Joe Pierle and Josh Pierle and junior Caleb McVicker. Track standout Matt Moore will also join the team and senior Andrew Keck will rejoin the squad after missing last season with an ACL injury.

“We’ve got some really good leaders and they will set the tone of how things go,” Bontreger said. “Anytime you put in a new program there will be growing pains, but they’ve been very receptive to the style of play.

“I think it’s going to be a fun style of basketball to watch.”

Sophomores Earl Chastain and Austin Hendershot are also expected to be contributors for Tri-West.

The Bruins finished last season with a 13-11 record and won nine of their final 11 regular season contests.



Avon

Avon enters the new season looking to pick up where it left off.

The Orioles (12-10) got on a roll late last season, ending on a five-game winning streak before suffering a two-point loss to Ben Davis in the sectional opener.

Orioles coach Jason Young said the close defeat to the Giants serves as extra motivation for his squad.

“We certainly played well down the stretch last season, but lost a tough game to Ben Davis,” Young said. “We have some key players returning that played in that game. I know they’re not very happy with how they played individually or how the team played in the second half.”

The Orioles will be led by a talented trio of returning starters — juniors Kendall Griffin (13.3 ppg, 6.1 rpg last season) and JaJuan Sarver (9.3 ppg), and sophomore Austin Burgett (8.7 ppg).

“We get leadership every day from those guys,” Young said. “Kendall and Juan are three-year starters and they’ve played a lot more varsity basketball games than most people ever get to play. We’ll need leadership from those two and Austin.”

Burgett — a 6-foot-8 forward — blocked a team-high 35 shots last season and is expected to be a match-up nightmare for opponents.

Young said Burgett should be even more dangerous this season.

“He’s becoming a lot more effective in the post,” he said. “He also has the ability to handle the basketball and has added range to his jump shot.”

Matt Grant is Avon’s lone senior. Grant played basketball as a freshman, but didn’t try out for his sophomore or junior years.

The bulk of the Oriole roster features juniors, including Desmond Mayberry, Dominique Blackmon, Jared Miller, Luke Miller, Jacob Burns, Michael Etienne, Robbie Dickison, and Bryan Schlatter. Sophomore Lance Magee is also expected to contribute.

As for team goals, Young has his sights set on the sectional.

“I think our sectional will be very good again,” Young said. “We feel like we have a chance, and we’d like to be playing as well as we did in last year’s stretch run.”



Brownsburg

Facing a tough schedule in a tough conference, the Bulldogs followed their state championship campaign with a winning season last year.

Head coach Joshua Kendrick knows repeating that feat won’t be easy.

“I think the competition we play is the best in the state,” he said.

Brownsburg will have to replace several key components in graduated seniors J.D. Cosby, Austin Fish, and Jacob Stevens.

Last season, Fish led the team in scoring (10.8 ppg) and steals; Cosby led the team in assists; and Stevens led the team in rebounding.

“Those were three team leaders that really bought into what we’ve done,” Kendrick said. “But when you graduate guys like that who were such good leaders, the younger guys pick up on that.”

The Bulldogs will have a five-man senior class with Kurtis Runyon, Levi Roach, Jacob Eldridge, Kyle Clifton, and Alan Paddock.

Junior Torrey Nibbs has played varsity since he was a freshman and averaged 10.2 points per game last season. He will be looked to as one of the team’s primary scoring threats.

“He brings back the most points, assists, and rebounds for us,” Kendrick said. “He’s a young man who has put in a lot of work and it’s time for him to see the rewards.”

Without a lot of height, Nibbs will lead an up-tempo attack for the Bulldogs.

“We have to hit shots outside, but we also have to rebound at a high level,” Kendrick said. “We don’t have 6-8 guys. When you’re 6-2 you have to make sure you are fundamentally sound.”



Cascade

The past two seasons, the Cadets have saved their best for last.

Last year they fell to eventual sectional champion Covenant Christian by two points in overtime.

The season before it was sectional champion Tri-West that edged them in the postseason by five points.

Head coach Chris DuBois is hoping his team doesn’t wait so long this season to start clicking.

“It’s something we’ve talked about,” he said. “We can’t wait until the end of the year to put it all together. We always seem to play well at sectional.”

The Cadets will have to replace a productive senior class that included leading scorer Conner Guthrie (12.4 ppg) and leading rebounder Mikey Pelley.

Cascade will field a young team with just one senior — Andrew Arthur.

DuBois will look to a group of juniors — Kyle Spencer, Zach Baldwin, and Tanner Dunn — to help lead the way. Spencer averaged 10 points per game last season.

“We’ve got a senior and three juniors,” DuBois said. “It’s a pretty young team, that’s just the way it seems to be the last couple years.”

Sophomores Jeffrey Hopper, Josh Daugherty, and Alex Arthur will all be looked to for playing time as well.

Cascade will field a small team — with Andrew Arthur (6-3) and Tanner Dunn (6-2) being its tallest members — and will try to play to its strengths.

“We’re going to be small,” DuBois said. “We are going to have to run and we are going to have to be in shape.”

For the Cadets, fighting for a West Central Conference title is a primary goal.

“We always think we can compete for a conference title,” DuBois said. “We know how important those games are. One loss can make the difference.”