SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Nice to see the wildcats putting some numbers in the win column

Go cats!

Waterford with the win over Fort Frye last night and Waterford’s head coach was ejected between JV and varsity game. The JV coach ran the game all by himself with no one else helping on the bench. Quite the embarrassment.
Cats are definitely playing better despite the head coach. Fort Frye in a rut without their top scorers who are injured. Fort Frye still plays with total effort despite being outmanned a bit.

Waterford’s growth is real. The biggest difference from the losing streak to now is how connected they look. Early on, it felt like individual efforts trying to stop the bleeding. Lately, it’s been true team basketball. Pennock and Lang carrying the scoring load makes sense, but Heiner, Fairchild, and Roberts in the post has completely changed their ceiling. When Waterford is getting consistent interior production, they’re a much tougher out.

The Pottmeyer brothers playing well is another quiet but important piece. They’re doing the little things that don’t always show in the box score, and that steadiness matters, especially on the road in a hostile environment like Fort Frye.

On the HC ejection situation: I saw and heard similar things from FF folks. Timeout not being acknowledged right in front of an official is frustrating at any level, and emotions boil over fast in rivalry gyms. Without knowing exactly what was said, it’s hard to fully judge, but from what multiple people are saying, the ejection sounds heavy-handed. Unfortunately, those moments tend to snowball once control is lost.

Heiner’s maturity really stands out. That’s legitimate growth. Getting into early foul trouble and still staying composed is huge, especially for a post player who plays with emotion. That’s the kind of development that translates directly to wins later in the season.

Fairchild has absolutely taken a step forward. More confident, more decisive, and just plays hard every possession. That matters.

HUGE credit to the JV coach. That was an intense environment, and keeping kids calm without overcoaching is a skill. Winning there, especially when they haven’t in a while, is a big deal for the program top to bottom.


They’re trending the right way. Not perfect, but clearly improving every game, and that’s exactly what you want to see at this point in the season.

Next couple of games will be some good ones.

Came to the Waterford game tonight and surprised to see Coach Cunningham on the sidelines after being ejected last game.

Watched this online. NFHS is horrible in that gym. For some reason the camera doesn’t always like to follow the game. But I did watch it and
Waterford came away with a big win tonight. A night where everything finally clicked into place. You can almost feel the shift in confidence — crisp ball movement, smart reads, and guys stepping into shots without hesitation. When a team that’s been grinding through some rough patches suddenly starts trusting each other and the system, the whole vibe changes.
The high–low action with Heiner and Fairchild gave River Valley’s 2–3 zone fits. When you can get the ball into that soft middle area and force the zone to collapse, it opens up everything — cutters, kick‑outs, dump‑offs. It’s the kind of offense that looks simple when it’s working, but it takes timing, spacing, and a lot of unselfishness.
And it’s huge to see contributions across the board. Pottmeyer hitting double digits, Pennock and Heiner doing their thing, Lang adding 10 — that’s balanced scoring you can build on. When multiple guys are threats, defenses can’t key in on just one or two players.
Lang is playing really good ball right now. When a guard starts seeing the floor better, anticipating plays, and defending with purpose, it changes the whole team’s ceiling. A couple of steals, big rebounds, and those inside feeds — that’s the kind of glue‑guy performance that doesn’t always show up in the headlines but absolutely wins games.
Fairchild is absolutely playing like a true leader. He doesn’t score a lot but his presence on the court is a huge difference maker. He is strong and has great power and speed. His length is another thing. He and Heiner can cover the paint and it’s hard to go into that area when you’ve got those two.
Roberts is by far one of my favorite players to watch (#44) he is so quick for as big as he is. He plays with power and poise. And his ball handling is good. He pulls down some big rebounds and he has incredible body control too.
Waterford has 3 really good “bigs” that would be hard for any team to matchup against.
Pennock was the leading scorer again but he seems to miss opportunities down the floor. Several times he had open players under the baskets on fast breaks - mismatches on the block and he doesn’t seem to want to give up the ball. He’s a good ball player and he shoots well but sometimes it’s better to hit that open guy with no defender than try to go through traffic. Not taking away his ability but this balanced scoring by the wildcats is what they have needed and it’s finally starting to show what they can do.
It feels like Waterford is starting to find its identity. If they keep this level of ball movement and confidence, they’re going to be a very tough team as the season goes on.
The part of their improvement has surprised me the most — the offense coming alive and the way certain players have stepped up.

That was a big win for the wildcats. They head to Southern Friday and that will be a good game.

SEOsportchamp23 wrote: Sun Jan 18, 2026 1:14 pm Waterford’s growth is real. The biggest difference from the losing streak to now is how connected they look. Early on, it felt like individual efforts trying to stop the bleeding. Lately, it’s been true team basketball. Pennock and Lang carrying the scoring load makes sense, but Heiner, Fairchild, and Roberts in the post has completely changed their ceiling. When Waterford is getting consistent interior production, they’re a much tougher out.

The Pottmeyer brothers playing well is another quiet but important piece. They’re doing the little things that don’t always show in the box score, and that steadiness matters, especially on the road in a hostile environment like Fort Frye.

On the HC ejection situation: I saw and heard similar things from FF folks. Timeout not being acknowledged right in front of an official is frustrating at any level, and emotions boil over fast in rivalry gyms. Without knowing exactly what was said, it’s hard to fully judge, but from what multiple people are saying, the ejection sounds heavy-handed. Unfortunately, those moments tend to snowball once control is lost.

Heiner’s maturity really stands out. That’s legitimate growth. Getting into early foul trouble and still staying composed is huge, especially for a post player who plays with emotion. That’s the kind of development that translates directly to wins later in the season.

Fairchild has absolutely taken a step forward. More confident, more decisive, and just plays hard every possession. That matters.

HUGE credit to the JV coach. That was an intense environment, and keeping kids calm without overcoaching is a skill. Winning there, especially when they haven’t in a while, is a big deal for the program top to bottom.


They’re trending the right way. Not perfect, but clearly improving every game, and that’s exactly what you want to see at this point in the season.

Next couple of games will be some good ones.

As someone from the other side sitting a few rows up from the visiting bench the other night I will attest the ejection was not warranted. When you have 2 coaches yelling timeout and its not called I would be upset too. I did not hear it, but trying to read lips in the middle of all of the commotion I am pretty sure the ref told Cunningham to come see him in the parking lot, after the game people from both sides saying the same. If that is true then that referee has no place in sports! Period.

I would lean to say that there is some validity to this as it appeared both schools administration's were working prior to the varsity game to resolve the issue, to the point where Cunningham was on the sidelines for a few minutes during warmups.

I was extremely impressed by Waterford's ability to hold themselves together after all of that and to come out and play at the level they did. As others have said that it a good sign of growth.

Last night with the cold we elected to not make the trip to Caldwell (that was a mistake) The Cadets played a great game and got a very big W. Congrats to Wyatt Duskey on the game winner and also to Coach Henniger on his 200th win. We stayed closer to home and went and watched Waterford play River Valley. Cunningham was on the sidelines coaching the varsity game but I did not see him during the JV game. Didn't hear anything about it either.

Whatever Coach Cunningham and Coach Burns are doing with this group, they need to keep doing! The game was over at half time! I don't know what happened in their last match up other than seeing the posted score, Waterford losing by 9 @ River Valley. To turn it around and watch what we watched tonight, Waterford hung a running clock on them in 4th quarter. Everyone that went on the floor tonight played well, very unselfish, several times I watched them make 2-3 extra passes for very open shots. They play hard on both ends of the floor and have some very good weapons on the inside and outside! It was a very fun game to watch and that is coming from someone who does not have a dog in the fight. Even with tonights win at Caldwell, if Waterford stays on the path that they are on and keeps building every game, I am not looking forward to the rematch in a couple of weeks.

Maybe Coach Henniger gets ejected over there to even the odds? Too soon?