Tribe opens Friday

For the second time in four seasons, the Indians boast the returning Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
Juniors rarely win the MAC’s top honor, but Greg Kahlig did so in 2008-09 and returned to lead the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team to the regional championship game as a senior.
The Tribe, which opens its season Friday at Memorial (St. Marys), is hoping for another strong season and deep tournament run as Wade Gelhaus returns to lead the team.
Gelhaus, who has committed to play college basketball at Saginaw Valley State University, averaged 18.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game last season in winning the MAC Player of the Year Award and being named to the Division IV all-state first team. He also led the Indians with 36 steals, and is the returning leader in assists after dishing out 43 during his junior campaign.
“When you return a first-team all-state (player) that’s a pretty nice place to start building,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch. “He can do a lot of things, cause a lot of mismatches … He’s worked really hard to develop the weaknesses in his game. … He’s a great athlete. … He can pretty much do it all.”
Gelhaus was a freshman on the team Kahlig led to a 21-4 record in the 2010 season, which ended with an overtime loss to Jefferson Township in the regional championship game. Now Elijah Kahlig, Greg’s brother, is the No. 2 returning scorer for the Indians.
Elijah Kahlig averaged 10.3 points as a sophomore last season, when he joined Gelhaus as a first-team All-MAC selection. He buried 40 3-pointers while shooting 41 percent from long distance, and was an 89 percent free-throw shooter.
“I’m not sure there’s any kid that works harder and puts the time in the gym that he has over the years I’ve been here,” said Patch. “He’s usually in there at least three or four days a week, and in the summer he was in here twice a day. …
“He can do a lot. He’s not just a shooter anymore. … He can come off screens, he can post up, he handles the ball. He started to become a better defender last year, so I think his overall game is improving.”
The team returns three others players who averaged at least 12 minutes per game last season in juniors Ben Dilworth, Kent Retz and Alex Kaiser.
Mason Evers, a junior who saw action in 13 games last season, Dilworth and freshman Kyle Schroer joined Gelhaus and Kahlig in the starting lineup in the team’s first scrimmage. And Patch said he expects freshman Darien Sheffer, Alex Kaiser and Retz to see significant minutes off the bench.
Senior Jacob Schoen and junior Mike Joash round out the roster.
With Retz — 2.3 points per game last season — as the No. 3 returning scorer, Patch said he expects opponents to focus on Gelhaus and Kahlig.
“Last year we saw that triangle-and-two a lot and obviously the idea was to take away Wade and Elijah, or Jared (Kahlig), and try to make someone else beat you,” he said. “Looking at this team, why would you not do that to us every single game?
“We have two kids that potentially could score 20 apiece. … Most teams … are going to make somebody else beat them. That’s stuff we’ve talked to our kids about all summer long.”
Overall the Indians hope they can have a similar year to the one they produced in 2011-12, except against St. Henry.
Two of Fort Recovery’s three losses last season came against the Redskins, the second of which ended its tournament run in the district championship game. Those defeats have left a bitter taste for the returning Indians, who face a schedule that includes trips to the regional site in Kettering for the GMC Shootout in December and the Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational in January.
“We have some challenges in front of us,” said Patch, whose team’s only other loss last season came to Division I Walnut Ridge at the Flyin’ to the Hoop event. “I think it’s probably by far the toughest schedule we’ve had since I’ve been here.
“I think if we can work on our weaknesses … and take the challenges as they come, hopefully we can be where we want to be at the end. That’s competing for a MAC championship and making another run in the tournament. … An obvious goal for us would be another sectional championship, but we don’t want to stop there.
“We know we have our work cut out. It’s not going to be an easy road, but it’s one that we put a lot of work into this summer. Hopefully we can take another step further than we did last year.”[[In-content Ad]]