Gelhaus back to lead Indians

FORT RECOVERY — With his team’s top player fouled out, and with the season and a trip to the state finals on the line, Wade Gelhaus was at his best.
He drove past Adrian Payne, the 6-foot-10-inch Michigan State recruit unable to keep him away from the basket, and scored a pair of lay-ups. The first helped force overtime, and the second kept the Indians in contention in the extra session against favored Jefferson Township.
The Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team lost that game by four, but in defeat Gelhaus, a freshman, gave Tribe fans a glimpse of his abilities.
As FRHS prepares to start its season Friday at Memorial (St. Marys), Gelhaus is now the team’s leader.
“For him, what he did in that game is something we saw him do every day in practice,” said Tribe coach Brian Patch of the regional championship contest. “We knew he had the ability to do those things. This year we’re going to need him to do that, step up and take that mentality of being the No. 1 scorer and the go-to guy.”
Although the Indians return eight players who saw varsity minutes last year, only two of them, Gelhaus and Jason Pottkotter, were part of the six-man rotation they used for the majority of the tournament.
Gelhaus is the returning leader from the 21-4 squad, which lost seniors Greg Kahlig, Cody Fiely, Craig Tobe and Michael Gaerke to graduation, in almost every statistical category. He scored 6.3 points per game last year, including 12 in the regional title game, and averaged 4.9 rebounds. He also had 34 blocks, 19 assists and 15 steals.
Kahlig, the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Division IV Player of the Year, averaged 25.2 points and 11 rebounds per game, and also led the Indians with 114 assists, 47 blocks and 37 steals. He shot 80 percent from the foul line, buried 45 3-pointers and finished his career as Fort Recovery’s all-time leading scorer.
The squad also lost 9.7 and 8.8 points per game from Tobe and Fiely respectively.
“What we want (Gelhaus) to do is step up. We’re not asking him to be Greg Kahlig … but we just need him to step up and be able to score for us, to be able to get rebounds and defend the post,” said Patch. “We need him to be someone we can go to when we need a bucket.
“His skill level is very high for a sophomore.”
Pottkotter, a junior, played in all 25 games last season and was the Indians’ first, and often only, man off the bench. He averaged 2.2 points per game, shot 69 percent from the foul line and hit five 3-pointers.
Senior Ryan Schoen saw action in 23 games last season and averaged 1.2 points.
“Other than that, we’re going to be young, inexperienced,” said Patch. “The guys who are a little older haven’t had many varsity minutes, if any at all.”
Jared Kahlig leads a group of other returning players, including Shane Brunswick, Trent Kaiser, Aaron Wilker and Elliot Post, who saw minimal playing time last season. He was primarily a junior varsity player, but got on the varsity court in 13 games.
Patch said he will be looked upon to help Gelhaus offensively, and has the ability to be a double-digit scorer.
Fort Recovery will also rely on several newcomers. Among them is Elijah Kahlig, Greg’s brother.
“For a freshman, his role is going to be a little different than Greg’s was as a freshman and even Wade’s,” said Patch. “Those guys were role players on good teams. We need Elijah to step in and be able to score and create shots for other people. I guess we’re asking more of Elijah.”
The team will also look for help in the post from Derek Gaerke, Michael’s brother who did not play basketball last season, and freshman Bobby Mattraw. The Indians lost a total of 26.1 rebounds per game to graduation.
“We just need those guys to defend, to rebound, to hit the offensive glass,” said Patch. “Any points that they can collect is going to be a bonus for us. … We’ve been telling them every time a shot goes up, that’s considered a pass to you.”
Patch said he expects rebounding, defense and ball security to be keys for his squad, which is unlikely to average the nearly 60 points per game it put up last season.
He noted that the Indians were not expected to be spectacular last season, but went 21-4 and won sectional and district titles before falling just short of a Final Four berth. He said his young squad will look to improve throughout the year with a goal of exceeding expectations again.
“For us right now it’s just taking baby steps and trying to make improvements the entire way,” said Patch, whose team has won three straight sectional titles. “We’re just looking at these 20 games as trying to get better, trying to improve and … taking that improvement to a point where we can make a run again.
“We have a learning curve … but at the same time, because we’re young and inexperienced, I think the ceiling for us to grow is very high.”[[In-content Ad]]