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WHEELING -- Part of a high school program is the yearly turnover, replacing the seniors that you've lost- often some of the most important pieces of the past year- with new faces and a new look.
That is not the case for the Wheeling Central Catholic Maroon Knights this season.
"We actually, for the first time since I've been coaching, we return everybody," Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens said. "We had no seniors last year. One of our best players, Eli Sancomb, didn't play last year because he got hurt in the football season. We've got the 11 that played plus him coming back, and we've added a couple guys to the roster this year.
"Our expectations are pretty high, because we improved last year from beginning to end, and with all those guys coming back with that year's experience, expectations are high."
After going 14-11 last season and making a run to the state quarterfinals where they fell to Bluefield, Wheeling Central has a rare opportunity to run it back with a crew that suffered no losses, and could be gaining reinforcements.
"We've got everybody coming back and we've got some guys coming back from injuries so it's looking really good this year," senior Isaac Schmitt said.
"It was kind of disappointing last year, how it ended," senior Quinton Burlenski said. "We were a young team, but we still got down to state, got that experience. Coming back this season we're more experienced, we're a lot older, and expectations are a lot higher."
Burlenski, a second team all-state player last season where he crossed the 1,000-point threshold, headlines a group of five seniors for the Knights.
"Quinton Burlenski for sure, I think he was second team all-state last year, had a really good year and had a really good summer," Stephens said. "Not having any seniors last year, a lot of our juniors had to take that leadership role. Now this year we have five seniors, Burlenski, Isaac Schmitt, Jeremy Ratcliffe, Eli Dean, and Matt Griffin."
In addition, a couple freshmen have impressed in the offseason, guard Luke Sancomb and forward Nico Kusic. Luke's older brother, 6-foot-4 sophomore Eli Sancomb, will be back on the court after missing all of last season with an injury.
The Knights see themselves as a long, athletic team that can fill it up on offense. Sophomore forward Max Olejasz and junior swing player Troy Anthony both had solid seasons last winter and are expected to take on bigger roles. Tyler Dean, who was a key cog off the bench last season, is also expected to handle a key role, too.
"We're pretty long and athletic, we shoot the ball well, and this year I think we're a lot deeper," Burlenski said. "I think we'll run teams up and down the floor a lot."
Stephens, meanwhile, intends to drill in a defensive mindset to his experienced group.
"We're always stressing defense," Stephens said. "I thought last year we were decent defensively, but that's an area where you can always get better. I'd like us to get a little better at guarding the ball.
"We talk to them all the time, if you don't want to play defense very long then you have to rebound. If you get the defensive rebound, you get to take the ball to the other end and play some offense. We've stressed since the end of last year doing better at guarding the ball and making sure we rebound, on the defensive end especially."
With a trip to the state tournament fresh on their minds, Wheeling Central is eager to duplicate their success of last year.
"We're just picking up where we left off last year, and we're trying to go all the way," Schmitt said.
"Our goal in mind is a state championship," Burlenski said. "We know that's a high goal, and also an OVAC Championship. Those things are what we all have in mind."