SA hopes for winning year

The Starfires are coming off of a tremendous football season.
They were ranked in the top 10 in Class 1A for most of the year. And they racked up 10 wins before dropping out of the tournament to a Sheridan team led by the winningest coach in Indiana high school football history.
Now they hope they can parlay some of that gridiron success into wins on the court as well.
“I like to go with that leadership, especially being a new coach working with this group,” said first-year South Adams High School coach Andy Brown, who has seven seniors on his roster. “Those guys have had success with football especially. … I’m going to lean on them to take us where we need to go.”
As he did on the football field, Dustin Wanner will be looked upon to lead the team.
Wanner will be the point guard for the Starfires, who open their season at home Wednesday against Union City, after posting team highs in points, assists (58) and steals (48) a year ago. He shot 74 percent from the free-throw line on the way to scoring 15.1 points per game, and he’s also the top returning rebounder after grabbing 5.6 per game a year ago.
“I think that carries over pretty easily from being a quarterback to being a point guard,” said Brown. “I think he’s ready to take on that role. … I think having success … should carry over.
“He was the top scorer last year. He handled the ball a majority of the time. And we’re going to lean on him to lead the offense”
Scott Hoeppner is the No. 2 returning scorer after averaging 7.5 points in 2010-11. He led the team with 35 3-pointers, and can also help Wanner with point-guard duties after totaling 54 assists and 21 steals.
“Those two are guys I’ve looked to a lot over the summer and the fall as far as getting people where they need to be and telling guys what they need to be told,” said Brown, who is in his first head-coaching job.
With Wanner and Hoeppner leading the way in the backcourt, the Starfires will lean on Matt Alig underneath. The 6-foot-5-inch senior is coming off of a season in which he averaged 1.8 points.
The rest of the senior group includes Logan Steiner, Zach Morgan, Mark Muselman and Mark Smith.
Junior Blake Fox is the only returning player other than Wanner and Hoeppner who started more than two games last season, averaged 4.1 points and 3.4 rebounds. Fellow junior Chase Mosser and sophomore Blake Baumer round out the roster.
Brown spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at Columbus North, where he coached under former Butler University star Darnell Archey for two seasons. He said while he would like to push the ball, his focus will be on the other end of the floor.
“I’m more of a defensive-minded coach. I think defense is where it starts. I think that you can get a lot of good offense from your defense.”
Brown and his senior-laden squad are looking to turn around a program that has won just six games over the course of the last two seasons, including a 5-15 mark a year ago. Their last winning campaign came with an 11-10 record in 2006-07, and they haven’t won a sectional title since stringing together four in a span of five years from 1989 to ’93.
“They’re ready to go,” said Brown. “They all seem excited. … I’ve seen a lot of good things from the guys on the court.
“I can’t really put a number on how many wins, but I think we should definitely be over .500. I think we have the talent to do so. … And I think that these guys are ready to do that.”[[In-content Ad]]