NorthWood’s Micah Phelps, Ben Vincent and Jason Borkholder will all be asked to bring more to the court for NorthWood’s boys basketball team this winter. (File photo by James Costello)
NAPPANEE – You have to hand it to NorthWood boys basketball head coach Aaron Wolfe. Regardless of the success or disappointment, the graduation output, the uncertainty of a new group of kids, his outlook always remains the same.
Go ahead, look it up.
“We’re excited about the upcoming year,” said Wolfe in his cautiously confident manner. “We graduated a majority of our scoring and rebounding. However, we have young players. All will be in new roles.”
NorthWood finished 18-6 overall and reached the regional round for the fourth time in five years. The Panthers won 10 in a row to reach the regional before running into Marian in the regional semis, the Giants knocking the Panthers out for the second straight time. The Panthers are searching for its first regional title since 2007, the only time NorthWood has made the Final Four. In order to do that in a very balanced sectional grid NorthWood has won eight times, the Panthers will need to institute Wolfe’s mantra heading into the year.
The Panthers will have to start out with just one player who started a game last year in senior Nick Bean, who started 17 games last year. Classmate Matt Dutkowski and Bean both got into double digit games, Bean scoring near six points a night and Dutkowski only scoring 15 points in his 14 games, Dutkowski coming off the bench in each contest. Bean, a fiery and physical player, was fourth on the team in assists and minutes played.
NorthWood will try to fill in the gaps left by 35 points from graduation including All-NLC performers Caleb Lung and Brad Delio, and 10 more from Kaden Gongwer, who decided not to return.
Five others on the varsity roster saw multiple games last year. Juniors Trent Edwards, Brock Flickinger, Micah Phelps and Jason Borkholder as well as sophomore Ben Vincent all return.
Wolfe will also have a rotation that includes juniors Toby Brenner, Josh Stratford, Andrew Miller, sophomore Caleb Schwartz and freshmen Jamarr Jackson and Cooper Wiens. Of those, only Stratford and Brennen were not listed on the JV accompaniment.
“Every year we always want our players to pick up where we left off the year before,” Wolfe said. “But we are reinforcing a new journey. Our guys are growing each day. That will make it fun to get on the court and face a new jersey. I’m excited to see where this journey takes us.”
NorthWood opens its 2018-19 season Wednesday at Lakeland.