By Donnie Yeager Jr

For The Times Leader

WOODSFIELD – The Monroe Central Seminoles enter the 2022-23 season following a spectacular campaign that saw them finish 17-8, knocking off Caldwell for the sectional title before bowing out to Hiland in the district semis in overtime.

Gone from that team are a number of talented players, headed by four-year stalwart Malachi Rose-Burton, who averaged 15.4 points per contest. Also gone are Collin Kroll, who averaged just under 10 points per contest and was named District 12 1st team, Jake Swisher, who scored 8.6 PPG and was District 12 2nd team, Dillon Lincoln, Mike Bunning, and Austin Yonak.

Jon Perkins enters his seventh season as the coach of the Seminoles and knows there could be some growing pains as his team enters a youth movement.

“We have 24 out this year and the majority (13) of whom are freshmen,” stated Perkins “It’s good to have a lot of freshmen, and it’s the first time we have had a freshman team in several years, which is good for the program. At the varsity level, we are going to be extremely young, and it is just trying to build each game. There are some years you are going to measure by wins and losses, and some years you are going to measure by growth. I think this year we have got to focus on not where we start, but where we finish. That is what we have been trying to preach to the kids. We are going to come up against some teams that have been playing together at the varsity level for some years, and we are relatively inexperienced to almost every single team on our schedule. Sometimes you have to go through the cycle in small high school basketball. This is the first year we’ve had this few seniors and juniors.”

Perkins added, “In the last two years, we’ve graduated 13 seniors and we started a freshman last year in Tucker Howell, but we had a balanced team across the board. We had four guys that scored in double figures and the fifth was close,” Perkins continued.Leading the way for the ‘Noles will be 6-1 sophomore Tucker Howell, who scored 13.4 ppg last season as a freshman, earning him District 12 2nd team and Eastern District 3rd team honors. “Tucker started the season last year as one of the seven guys we played and ended up being the second-leading scorer on the team to Malachi.”

Another player slated to see prime minutes is 6-2 senior Loghan Brown, who stepped up at times last season and has worked his way into the starting lineup this year. \

Lane Demchak (5-10, Jr) will be the third starter for Monroe, who Perkins sees as a capable shooter that will likely handle the ball a good bit.

Zander Potts (6-2, Jr) will be the fourth starter. “Zander is long and can really shoot from the perimeter, and we will utilize his length on defense.”

The final starting spot is currently up for grabs with Dylan Garden (6-1, So) seeming to hold an edge. Tyler Whitacre (6′, So), Logan Powell (5-8, So), and Jacob Fogle (6′, So) have also been working toward the position.

Also working for playing time are senior Shawn Stimpert (5-10), sophomores Tyler Whitacre (6′) and Wesley Loch (6-1), and freshman Caedyn Silva (5-7).

Making up the JV squad will be Stimpert and Silva as well as sophomores Ethan Bright (5-10) and Andrew Pickenpaugh (6′) and a dozen freshmen: Blake Yontz (5-8), Luke Garey (6-2), Carson Valkovic (5-8), Caedyn Silva (5-7), Caleb Griffith (5-8) Bryant Zwick (5-11), Jayen Marmie (5-10), Brandon Pittman (5-9), Mason Landefeld (5-9), AJ Rutter (5-8), Lukes Stiver (5-9) and Wyatt Erb (5-11).

Perkins will be assisted by Tucker Brown. Junior Winland will be the JV head coach and a varsity assistant and Derik Shirley will coach the freshman team. Jason Perkins will also be a varsity assistant coach.