This years South basketball team will
be less experienced than last years, but Coach Augspurger is happy
with the way the team played together in summer league and so he is
looking forward to this winter's campaign. The team graduated 5
seniors off of last years team – which barely lost to the eventual
state champs, Tri-Village. And that was only by a single basket
scored in the last seconds of the game. So that is a lot of
experience and talent to replace.
The team does return 2 year starters JJ
Utz at point guard and Jacob Bassler at wing. Winston Crozier also
had significant playing time last year as a 6th man. The
remainder of the team will be playing on the varsity squad for the
first time. Mike Meyers, Jared Cottingim, Andrew Augspurger, Chad
Ehler, Ryan Bassler, and Travis Lovely round out the rest of the
roster. South will not have much height and so they will need to
work hard on defense again this season.
“It is a less experienced team than
last season's,” admitted coach Augspurger, “We had a good summer
and the guys played well together. I am hoping to get a good start
against the conference and get some early momentum going.”
Next he was asked for about competition
in the league, “Tri-Village does have some new transfers and they
become eligible in game 12 – the game that we play them. They are
defending league and state champs, so they have to be favored again
this year. They are definitely the team to beat in our league. Miami
East will also be strong – as they have been for several years now.
They have a lot of size. Bethel and Covington should also be
improved from last season.”
An interesting wrinkle to this season –
former TVS player, Dale Spitler Jr., will be coaching at North this
year. It will be the second time in his career that coach Augspurger
will coach against a former player of his. So the North – South
game will be a bit more intense this year.
South will be hosting a tip off
tournament again this season. This will be the weekend after
Thanksgiving. So it will be a good opportunity for visiting alumni
in town for the holiday to come back to the school and see this years
edition of the team. The other schools will be Stivers, Eaton, and
Dixie. The opening round will be Friday the 27th with
Eaton and Stivers playing at 6pm, followed by South and Dixie at
7:30. The consolation and championship games will be played Saturday
night with the consolation at 6pm and the championship at 7:30pm.
The South girls team will be kicking
off their season under new head coach, Jeff Case, at North the
weekend before Thanksgiving. It will be a SWBL vs. CCC matchup. They
will play Carlisle at 6pm. Then North will play Northridge at 7:30
that Friday (Nov. 20). Then Saturday it will South's turn to play
Northridge at 6pm, while North plays Carlisle at 7:30pm.
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