Defensive-minded

Last season’s moment to celebrate was all about scoring prowess.

New Tribe coach Jim Melton has a different focus.

The first-year Fort Recovery High School boys basketball coach, whose team opens its season Friday against the Memorial (St. Marys) Roughriders at Fort Site Fieldhouse, makes defense his priority.

“With a new coach, a new system, new terminology, new structure and organization, it’s been a little bit of a learning curve here the first few weeks,” said Melton, who coached last season at Arcanum and was previously an assistant at Winchester and Park Tudor.

“I’m a defensive-minded coach first; we will pack that lunch pail with us every night,” he added. “That’s been my focus is teaching them my philosophy, my system and the terminology is different for them. So we’ve spent a lot of time on defense.”

When he talks about defense, it’s not as a disciple to a single man or zone philosophy. Instead, it’s a gap-based approach — an effort to clog the paint while still keeping pressure on the ball — and using communication to make sure help defenders get where they need to be.

“I mix it up a lot,” Melton said. “I have a lot of different schemes that I like to put out there. But a lot of it is predicated on who we’re playing …”

Melton and his new coaching staff, a group he brought in that includes his former Arcanum assistant Shane Bosworth and longtime area coach Jerry Barga, take over a squad that went 11-12 last season. The Indians won their tournament opener easily over Waynesfield-Goshen but fell 67-60 to Minster in the Division IV sectional championship game at Coldwater.

One of the highlights of the season came from then-senior Payton Jutte, who on Feb. 2 became the 17th player in school history to surpass 1,000 career points.

With Jutte and fellow 2019 seniors Clayton Pearson, Noah Lennartz and Blayne Tobe gone, the Indians have a junior-laden roster with a couple of seniors to lead the way.

“We’re pretty deep,” said Melton. “You’re going to see nine guys on the floor and a potential 10th. … If we want to go big, we can go big. … Or if we need to go smaller with one big and a lot of speed, we can do that as well.

“My starting lineup won’t be like a lot of programs where they have their staple five … Mine could rotate.”

The two seniors returning are Grant Knapke and Ian Homan. The former was a double-figure scorer in both tournament games last season, including putting in 14 points in the semifinal victory over Waynesfield-Goshen.

“He’s very athletic,” Melton said. “He can handle the ball. He can run the point if I need him to.

“He’s got a good feel for the game. I like his game a lot.”

The large junior class includes Clay Schmitz — he tallied 17 points against Waynesfield-Goshen and 16 in the sectional loss to Minster — Brian Bihn, Ryne Post, Derek Jutte, Gavin Thobe, Dillan Evers and Regan Martin.

And the rotation will also include sophomore Owen Jutte and freshman Cale Rammel.

“I like Clay Schmitz’s leadership,” said Melton, noting his experience as the quarterback for the FRHS football team. “He shows a lot of leadership in practice. He’s picking up things pretty quickly. He can play inside and out.”

The Indians are coming off of a losing season after three consecutive winning campaigns. They have also finished 3-6 in the Midwest Athletic Conference each of the last two years.

Melton embraces the challenge of taking on the MAC, which has produced 10 boys basketball state champions including Marion Local in 2018. Fort Recovery last won the league in 2012.

“It’s what appealed me to Fort Recovery,” Melton said. “That conference is well-respected, well-known around the state of Ohio and even the eastern part of Indiana.

“With my time at Park Tudor and coaching in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, I feel that’s prepared me for this conference.”

That said, he didn’t set out a specific MAC result, or even an overall win total, as a goal. Those things aren’t his priority as he takes over the FRHS program.

“I say this all the time, but I just use the game of basketball as a vehicle to coach the game of life,” said Melton. “When these young men leave my program and graduate, success equals that I’ve done my job and helped prepare them for life. Basketball, the wins, that’s just the icing on the cake.

“I’m super excited about them. … I look forward to the future in the program and what this season holds for us.”