CADIZ — Nick Yourkovich reluctantly hung up his coaching whistle three years ago. A new administrative position became a boon to his professional career, but the increased responsibilities necessitated a step back from his coaching duties.

Albeit temporarily.

Settled into his routines and responsibilities, Yourkovich felt it was time to return to the bench and when previous Harrison Central boys’ coach Aaron Foldi moved on to assist at Franciscan, Yourkovich saw a perfect opportunity.

“I never really wanted to get out of it,” Yourkovich admitted following a three-team scrimmage over the weekend. “I took a new job and it forced me to step away to make sure I could handle the admin duties at the school.

“But this opened up and I decided to get back into coaching.”

Yourkovich, formerly the longtime girls’ coach at Harrison, inherits a few key returners from a Huskies team that finished a few games below .500 a season ago, a season marred by injuries to key personnel.

There is still plenty of inexperience in the boys’ locker room at Cadiz, particularly in the backcourt. But, Yourkovich does benefit from a few experienced players, including a foundation player in 6-4 senior wing Bryson Kamarec.

“He’s a little more skilled, a good player to walk into with your first year,” Yourkovich said. “He’s a nice building block, a safety net, whatever you want to call it. But spots 2-13 will be extremely competitive.”

Also returning are senior guards Brady Hyre and Jacob Quito, though look for Hyre to gravitate more toward the post to take advantage of his 6-4 frame.

An early frontrunner to handle point guard duties is sophomore Lance Smith, though Yourkovich admitted developing multiple capable ball handlers has been and continues to be a key goal during the preseason.

“Lance has a feel for what we’re trying to do and is doing a good job of getting us into (our offense) and distributing in the system,” Yourkovich said, noting that fellow guards like senior Hunter Fulton, sophomore Zach Harbold and freshmen Colson Crothers and Kingston Smith could see increased responsibilities as the season progresses.

“We don’t want to give it to the freshman right off the bat and throw them into the fire,” Yourkovich said. “We’d like for them to get some varsity experience under their belts.”

The varsity rotation will also include seniors Cooper Thompson and Chaz Culbertson, along with junior Austin Dulkoski. The rest is composed of freshmen and sophomores ripe for instruction into Yourkovich’s style of play.

“That’s the good thing,” he said. “All the guys, even the seniors, are coachable and hard working. Everything we ask them to do, they’ve been doing.

“We have a solid 12-13 kids that, at some point, will play varsity minutes. Our practices have been competitive. They split up and we go 5-on-5 and it makes all of us better because of the reps.”

In his 10 plus years as a girls’ varsity head coach, Yourkovich noted his best seasons came when the program’s junior varsity squad could provide a legitimate push in practice to the varsity players. That appears to be the case this season in Cadiz.

Also look for sophomores Olin Wade and Zayden Warrington to figure into the mix.