Young, excited

The Patriots never quite lived up to their potential in 2023.

The team lost a majority of its rotation from a year ago as well.

Even though there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding this team, coach Jerry Bomholt is excited for this season.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team returns only two players with varsity experience, but is meshing well as a group in the early practices of the 2023-24 season.

The team has already gotten off on the right foot according to Bomholt, who is impressed with the team’s chemistry on and off the court.

“We’ve got a really, really good group of kids, and they have worked extremely hard,” Bomholt said. “We've got some size, and we’ve got some shooters, these guys really get along.

“They saw that a year ago, there were some issues. When you don’t recognize your teammates, you don’t value your teammates, it can take a pretty good group and make it difficult to be successful. So these guys all the way down now … have pretty good chemistry.”

The main pieces that return from the team that finished 9-12, was co-champions in the Allen County Athletic Conference with Adams Central and was bounced from the sectional tournament by Frankton in the opener are sophomore Gradin Swoveland and junior Ben Crouch.

Bomholt is looking for Swoveland to make a big jump offensively as he will get a starting spot as a wing. Crouch will be vying for a starting spot as a post player, but has been dealing with an illness early in the season that has kept him out of early practices.

“Swoveland has really improved his offensive play,” Bomholt said. “(Last year), he didn’t come close to working to his ability level because he was afraid to take shots.

“He turned down a lot of open situations, but he’s going to be a really good player.”

Joining Swoveland as wings will be seniors Liam Garringer and Jackson Edwards. Both players will provide the Patriots with solid three-point shooting, something Bomholt expects to be a strength this year.

Garringer is expected to start to add an extra bit of height to the lineup. Garringer is listed at 6 foot, 2 inches while Swoveland is six foot, 7 inches. The extra height will help with rebounding efforts for the squad that will continue to use Bomholt’s 1-2-2 zone defense.

Once Crouch gets healthy, he will be competing with seniors Wesley Bihn and Trevin Dunnington. Bihn provides physicality for the Patriots while Dunnington’s length will help with rebounding to make it a strength along with the three-point shooting.

“We got guys that we think are really, really good shooters,” Bomholt said. “So we hope that's a strength for us. That would be a big plus, especially if we end up being a good rebounding team. That’s two things I'll take every year we play, if we can shoot it and we can rebound it.”

While shooting and rebounding will be strengths for the Patriots, turnovers may cause problems early in the year as the team learns the offensive scheme. Bomholt will turn to senior Parker Nichols to run the team as the point guard to run the offense and limit the team’s turnovers to a minimum.

Nichols has also stepped up as a leader of the team early in the season.

“I told him a year ago if he was going to be our point guard that I had to see some kind of leadership, whether it be by example, or verbally,” Bomholt said. “And he’s taking it by the horns. … We’ll see if he can do it. We’ll know by Christmas time what kind of team we have.”

Bomholt is keeping the goals high for Jay County this season. The first goal is to win the ACAC. After earning two championships, they tied with Adams Central last year, and by a head-to-head tiebreaker, was determined to be the runner-up.

The second goal is to win a sectional title for the first time since 2011 when Jay County was in Class 4A. While Bomholt recognized it won’t be easy, he thinks it is within reason for this group to win a sectional title.

“These kids, they want to win a sectional,” Bomholt said. “They want to try to advance in a tournament. And for us, that's going to be difficult … but they think they can do it. I've seen a lot of confidence, shown so far in preseason.”

Jay County opens its season at Elwood on Tuesday. While there may be some question marks and some growing pains, Bomholt is excited for what’s to come.

“I've really enjoyed this year, as much as any I can remember for a long time because they're a good group,” Bomholt said. “They want to earn what's in front of them. And I think that's always a good sign because when you earn it, then you appreciate it a lot more.”