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Hume struggles as they go to battle with roster of five
It's not an envious position for any coach to be in. Hume Hornets head basketball coach Justin Wehar, however, finds himself entering the 2016-17 campaign with a grand total of five players on his roster.
"We're definitely in rebuilding mode," said the fourth-year Hornets head hoops coach.
Home was hit hard by departing seniors, including All-GVVC selection Dakota Thornburg, as well as guards Blake Lewis and Tyler Clark.
In addition, the Hornets also lost promising combo guard Colby Steuck. Steuck, a sophomore who transferred to Rich Hill High School, would have been the Hornets No. 1 scoring option as the team's top returning player. During his freshman season with the Hornets, Steuck drilled 45 3-pointers.
"We lost the majority of our scoring, rebounding, and assists," Wehar said. "We're very inexperienced, very young, and have no depth. Right now, we're looking to continually make progress and keep our heads up,"
Wehar said despite two of his five players being seniors, the team has virtually no varsity level experience. The Hornets have opened the season with a pair of conference road losses, falling to Miami 49-15 and Ballard 51-8.
"Against Miami, we were right in the game at halftime," he said. "We played pretty well and took care of the basketball. Defensively, we looked fairly good.
"We got a little winded in the second half, that was pretty apparent. With no subs, I'm pretty much having to use my timeouts as extra breathers."
Even with the season opening setbacks, Wehar is determined and confident that he can mold his Hornet quintet into a highly competitive squad as the season moves along.
"It's very challenging," he said. "I've got a sophomore who had never played in a high school game until last Tuesday. I've got another sophomore who had never started a high school game until last Tuesday."
"Wehar continued, "I'm starting a freshman whose obviously never played in a high school game. I'm starting a senior who has never started in a high school game. And I'm starting another senior who got very limited playing time last year."
Wehar said what's most important to him right now is getting maximum "effort and hustle" from his players.
"I'm not necessarily looking at the wins and losses columns right now," he said.
Last season was Hume's best in recent memory, as they went 15-10 overall.
"That was a three-year work-in-progress," Wehar said of the 2015-16 Hornets. Wehar said the rebuild included a two win campaign in 2013-14, followed by three victories for the 2014-15 season.
"Then, we kind of got everything put together last year, winning 15," he said.
Wehar said he tries to make practices fun.
"We do some fun drills, and keep practices pretty light," he said.
"If another high school coach came in and watched, they probably wouldn't think it was a high school practice. It has to be handled a little bit different from a typical high school boys practice."
Wehard noted, "If the fundamentals are being done right, I think the rest of it will come. Fundamentally we're very raw right now.
"These guys haven't played much basketball, period, let alone be on the court together where they have any unity. We've got a long stretch ahead of us to try to figure out how we're going to play and what our identity is going to be."
Hume 2016-17 roster
* Chris Ahrens, Sr., Blake Clark, Sr., Coltin Shepherd, So., Austin Shepherd, So., and Jonathan Kellhofer, Fr.,