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After watching some really great Seniors filter through the conference last year... this year's conference could be wide open. Linton, Bloomfield, and North Daviess all had State Championship level teams the last 2 years. Linton lost by 3 to Providence in 2022 followed by a loss in the State Championship game in 2023. North Daviess won state in 2022 followed by a strong showing in the 3A tournament in 2023. Bloomfield lost to Indy Lutheran by 3 in the Regional in 2023. Those teams lost a huge chunk of their rosters. This is probably the most wide open the conference has been in a few years. There is plenty of talent, but it is either young or unproven... or both. Linton- Gone is Coach Hart, and a load of outstanding Seniors. Joey Hart, Logan Webb, Nathan Frady, and Wrigley Franklin along with Jaxon Walker and Hunter Gennicks graduated. Hart is at Kentucky, while Webb had a very short stay with Vincennes. Frady is playing baseball at Taylor. Franklin is at UIndy for football, while Gennicks just finished his 1st season playing sprint football for the Naval Academy. Walker chose to just attend Purdue, but he could have played baseball somewhere. Point is... they lost a lot 2, 3, and 4 year dudes who were big and athletic. Coach Hart is now off to rival North Daviess to wait for his return after a rough winter. The wake of Coach Hart being let go falls under the "If you don't have anything nice to say... you should say nothing at all". Lots of rumors and arguing among current and former players made his exit leave a bad taste in people's mouth. Loyalty to a man or loyalty to the program was a touchy subject. In the wake of all of this... Braden Walters was the only one to leave. He will suit up for Terre Haute North this season. I hope the transfer is good for him. We will have to wait and see if any younger players find their loyalties lie with a man over the program. Coach Britton inherits a young team with loads of potential. Sophomore, Paul Oliver, is the lone returning starter. He split time with Frady and Franklin last season. He had some really good games, but he was always the 3rd, 4th, or 5th option. He will have more opportunities to score this season, but he will also be the focal point for most defenses. At 6'3" 215 pounds and versatile enough to play inside or out... he could have a huge year. Jackson Miller returns to run the PG position after a solid Freshman campaign. He played a little varsity when the top 6 guys got in foul trouble, or he could be used to exploit another teams lack of speed. He has great court awareness and his shooting has improved greatly. Conner Daily will look to bring his JV scoring to the Varsity level as a Sophomore. Senior, Jamison Fields, will bring his instant offense to a full time varsity spot. He is not afraid of shooting... and can get crazy hot. Junior, Hayden Feltner will bring his 6'2" in to contribute. He had a lot of work against last year's Seniors. I'm looking forward to his move to Varsity. He brings some of the things Franklin did, but looks to score. Cooper Smith will rejoin the basketball world after sitting out his Freshman year. He will bring athleticism to the floor. Avery Keen (Sr.), Jacob Breedlove (6'7" Sr.), Michael Auberry (So.), Colin Webster (Jr.), and a host of other new faces will be fighting for Varsity time. Coach Britton not only has to replace 5 of the top 6, but he will deal with coaching comparisons throughout the year. An experienced coach who can handle that sort of pressure made Coach Britton a great hire for the Miners. There is enough talent to win the conference... youth and inexperience is what might prevent them from that goal. Early games vs. Clay City and Shakamak will be important. This will likely be when the Miners will be at their most vulnerable. If they get through those 2 early tests, I would favor them to win the conference. North Daviess- Gone are 3 of the best to ever suit up for the Cougars. Jaylen Mullen, Lance Wilson, and Logan Wilson helped lead a strong group of older guys last year. Most of those guys were Seniors... and like Linton... they didn't dip too deep into the bench. Bishop, Swartzentruber, Lengacher are all familiar names, but they will all by thrust into major roles this season. Blommfield- They also lost a strong Senior group of guys. Peter Combs is now playing at Taylor, while Brett Sherrard is playing baseball at Butler. They also lose Hank Skomp and Justin Beard along with Brasey Neil. Skomp was a dfensive guy who made some big shots, while Beard was their instant offense guy. Back is a host of Seniors along with Blake Neil. He wasn't crazy athletic as a Freshman, which was exposed against really athletic players, but he has a super high BB IQ and can make shots from outside. It will be interesting to see if he has grown. He is listed at 6'4", which is taller than he looked last year... along with added muscle... he could be really hard to handle. I'm not sure who will fill out the rest of the roster. Seniors... Quentin Ross and James Royal should be returning along with Kellen Luse. Ross should be the other main scoring option... he has a game similar to his older brother. A 6'3"+ wing that can hit open shots. If Royal takes a page out of his older brothers playbook... this will be his best year. Owen Medina brings size as a 6'6" sophomore... he will have needed to put on some weight to be effective. A couple solid guards from the JV should round out the roster. Shakamak- This should be the front runner if we are taking into account talent lost vs. talent returning. Back are Seniors... JT May and Will Miller at the guard spots. May can score in bunches when he gets going. A lot of the crazy athletes that locked him up in conference play graduated... he could have a big year. He needed to add some muscle/speed to take that next step. Miller has a solid game... he didn't always handle athletic/physical defenders well. He is probably excited to never see the Linton 1-3-1 again. He should have a really good senior year. Linden Jenkins returns as well... he is built like a Defensive Tackle, but has a solid game. Jaden Johnson likely takes on a larger role on the varsity. He is a good distributor and has NBA range shooting. I'll be interested to see if he has that green light from deep... if so it will spread out the defense and help mitigate his lack of side. The trio of Johnson, May, and Miller could be really potent if they can learn to coexist and play off each other. A strong freshman class of Hart Buell, Madden Husband, and Jalen Johnson (Jaden's younger brother) may steal some varsity minutes as the season goes. I worry a young coach won't be able to wrangle this group in and lead them to their full potential. I could see them winning the conference and even a sectional title... or linger around .500... who knows? Clay City- I'm not sure who they have returning... early wins against South Putnam and Barr-Reeve gives this team promise. An early test against Linton this Friday will be an interesting test for both teams. Last year's team had a few young guys (Sophomores??) that contributed. Word is they have an athletic big that swatted some big shots to help in the victory over BR. Friday night's game vs. Linton will clear up some of the confusion. Eastern- This may be the 3rd or 4th consecutive year that I have heard that the T-Birds are rebuilding. Coach Hudson will have them playing hard, but I just don't know how much size or talent they have. North Central- This team lost a few Seniors, but they always seem to be a question mark due to transfers from TH South. They have had some good athletes and even a few good players decide to head to NC rather than hang around at TH South. White River Valley- Max Hostetter should be able to dominate as one of the tops guards in the SWIAC and even Southern Indiana. I just don't know how much talent he has around him. An early loss to North Knox doesn't bode well for this team. Levi Hostetter takes over as head coach after a long tenure as the top assistant coach through the last few coaches. The feeder program has been better as of late, but help may be a year or two away. A local guy that has proven his commitment to the community and the program was a solid hire.

In recent years, enrollment data has been released around this time of the year - roughly mid-December. I’ve checked almost daily for the last week or so and there hasn’t been any data for this year released. Count day was moved back to the start of October instead of mid-September, so it could come out a little later. I’ll be glad to put something together once they are released, but I’m always interested in having others take a look at it to see if there are any details I missed or errors.

Apparently, Clay City is better than I previously thought. 3-0 with a nice victory against Barr-Reeve. I may have be a little hungover after watching a lot of the top tier teams last year. I watched CC 2 or 3 times last year... early in the year against BR, Linton, and Bloomfield... all losses. After that... CC quietly had a 17 win season with 4 of their losses coming against Linton, North Daviess, and Bloomfield(2). A couple big bodied physical Juniors (Tucker?... Edwards?) lead the way. This could be their year to win the conference. Coach Ames always has teams that play hard and physical... problem was in most of his years he has been trying to win with a host sub 6'0" players in a conference full of size. Now he has size with athletic ability. Linton can match their athletic ability and physical style... but 1st game with a lot football guys just trying to get in a groove. I will be interested to see if CC being the more seasoned team(lots of Juniors that have at least a year of varsity experience and their 4th game) might give them a big advantage. Whoever wins will be the early favorite to win the conference.