Jonathan Alder’s Ryan Mark goes up for a basket against Kettering Alter during the Division II regional semifinals. Mark, a junior, will be one of the leaders for the Pioneers moving forward.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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The longest tournament run put together by a local high school basketball team lasted until the regional semifinals.
The Pioneers of Jonathan Alder, who finished the season with a 16-10 won loss record, fell to No. 9 state-ranked and eventual regional champion Kettering Alter, 63-42, during the Division II contest that was recently played at Vandalia-Butler High School.
At one point in the season, Jonathan Alder was barely above .500, struggling at 8-7.
That, however, is when head coach Derek Dicke felt his squad started to put things together.
“That’s when we started making our biggest strides of the season,” he said. “The coaching staff just asked the guys to come together with blind faith… and they did.
“I never felt the guys ever gave up, but they needed to believe in themselves going forward.” he said. “We challenged them to handle adversity and we won a number of games after that.”
Jonathan Alder finished the regular season with a 13-9 record and placed third (behind Kenton Ridge and Urbana) in the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division standings.
The sixth-seeded Pioneers secured post-season victories over No. 12 Newark Licking Valley, third-seeded Columbus Bishop Ready and No. 5 Columbus Bishop Watterson to claim their first district championship since 1979.
The team was led by its lone senior, Peyton Heiss.
He averaged 24 points per game and was named the Central District player of the year in Division II.
Heiss will continue his basketball career at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
With the season now in the books, Dicke was asked where the program goes from this point.
“Well, we’ve got a 30-day ‘no-contact’ period,” the coach said. “After that, we’re going to get into the weight room because we have to become bigger and stronger.
“We’ll get back in the gym and work on our shooting,” he said. “We’ll also compete in some camps and shootouts during the summer.
“The guys have to understand that this (winning a district championship) is now the standard we’ve set,” said Dicke.
Although the Pioneers will be losing Heiss, there is still plenty of talent returning for the 2024-25 campaign.
“I love our junior class,” said the coach, referring to the likes of Ryan Mark, Noah Hess, Sam Cramer and Blake Atkins.
“They will have to realize they need to lead us next year,” he said.
“We also have a couple of sophomores – Garrett Bauer and Chase Meutzel) – who will continue to help us.
“I won’t ask any of them to be Peyton Heiss,” said Dicke. “However, they will have to help us live up to what I consider to be our new standard.
“We hope to establish a culture of winning multiple district championships,” he said “We’ll have to wait and see if that happens.”