BASKETBALL

Coshocton players confident as new season approaches

Cameron Teague Robinson
Reporter

COSHOCTON - After a 13-10 finish last season, the members of the Coshocton boys basketball team are confident they can improve on what new coach Jeremy Ady called a "pretty average" season.

"These kids are really looking forward to competing. We have high expectations for these kids," Ady said. "I came from a program at Dover where we've traditionally won, and that's the mentality I'm trying to embed in these kids."

Many of the players on the Redskins' basketball team are used to success. Nick Kirkpatrick, the team's point guard, is an All-Ohio pole vaulter, while seven of the 13 varsity players were members of the 7-3 football team that finished first in the East Central Ohio League Gray Division this year. Three-year letterman Conner Roahrig was named ECOL Player of the Year in boys soccer, while Ben Batchelor and Hunter Haas also played key roles in the Redskins' soccer program.

In short, the players on the roster aren't strangers to success, and Ady said he thinks that success will eventually carry over to the basketball program.

The program is going through a shift at the moment, as Ady is taking over the head coaching reins from Tom Hilgenberg, but it's been a fairly smooth transition.

Ady, the former junior varsity coach, has coached every player on the varsity roster, with the exception of Roahrig. So learning Ady's defense and the nearly 50 offensive sets he is incorporating hasn't been too much of a problem Ady said.

"These kids have picked it up," he said. "They know what to expect of me, they know what we've ran. We've had the same ideas and system, so yeah, it's been an easy transition for me."

Even Roahrig, who hadn't been coached by Ady because he has been on varsity since his freshman year, has grasped the change quickly, Ady said.

"(Ady) is a genius when it comes to basketball," Roahrig said. "Everyone knows that. We all focus on that, and he is just a really great coach."

But when it comes down to it, to improve, the Redskins need to work harder on defense, Ady said.

"It's pretty raw defensively between the pressure and turnovers. We are long, athletic and rebound well," he said.

Offensively, the Redskins will be led by Kirkpatrick at the helm and Andrew Mason and Dallas Griffiths in the post, where the hope is that throughout their sets they can get easy buckets, however they come.

"We are looking to set a lot of screens and shoot open jump shots," Ady said. "We are going to shoot open jump shots, slip a lot of screens and look for a lot of easy buckets when people take advantage and try to hedge and help a lot."

The outcome: Roarhig expects them to be in every game they have and compete with the top ECOL teams.

"We are going to win a lot of games," he said.

cteaguerob@gannett.com

740-295-3442

Twitter: @cj_teague