The Triad boys varsity basketball team is pictured from left, front row, Cameron Boes, Payton Oyer, Austin Deere, Hadley LeVan, Austin Bails, Kobe Endicott, Dillon Nott and Trevor Instine; back row; coach Eric Welty, coach John Millice, Bryan Bundy, Jacob Simonelli, Andrew O’Neal, Jack Walls, Cam Atchison, Briley Harlan, Jacob Greve, head coach Jason Malone and coach Jim Pond.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
––––
After a season that can only be described as “under achieving” for the Triad Cardinals basketball team, head coach Jason Malone believes his squad will bring a whole new dynamic to the court this year.
“Because of our depth last year, we went to a zone,” he said. “I’m not really a zone guy, but it suited us better.
“Our make up is different this year and I think we can be more aggressive in our man-to-man and try and use that to create offense for us.”
The depth the Cards will utilize this year will be due to their 33-man roster spread out over the freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams.
“Our program right now, we are pretty heavy with numbers,” Malone said. “We had 37 kids try out and unfortunately we had to make some cuts. Right now we are standing at 33 total, freshmen through varsity, so the interest and passion for basketball is there at Triad. That is is really exciting.”
Among those 33 players are six seniors that will lead this year’s varsity squad. They are Briley Harlan, Hadley LeVan, Austin Deere, Jacob Greeve, Cam Atchison and Trevor Instine.
“All of our seniors are going to have a pivotal role on our team,” said Malone. “They are going to have to lead us if we are going to be successful.”
LeVan will be leading the group for the Cardinals. He will most likely surpass thousand mark for points scored thought his career, as he is approximately 50 points away.
“Fortunately for us we have LeVan back,” Malone said. “He is an incredible scorer, he’s a competitor and he is one of the more talented players that I have ever had the privilege of coaching. He is definitely going to lead us.”
Joining LeVan this season will be Atchison and Harlan. Atchison will be returning to the team after a one-year transfer to Mechanicsburg and Harlan will be coming to back to the team after missing all of last season.
Malone believes his team has all of the pieces to make a solid run at an Ohio Heritage Conference title. However, it will come down to putting all the pieces together.
“Now it is just trying to figure out how to make the chemistry work for our team,” said Malone. “I think we have the pieces, but right now we’ve got to get a lot better.”
Within the OHC, Malone believes that West Liberty and Fairbanks will be among the teams at the top of the list. However, he wants to focus on all the talent he has on his team before he can start thinking about the talents of anyone else in the OHC.
“We were 9-14 last year and I think that everybody that is coming back knows that we under achieved a bit and we want to compete for a championship this year,” he said. “I think we have the pieces to compete in the OHC North, but it is going to be incredibly difficult.”