Meigs Vs. Wellston Preview

[Marauder-classof82]

Thoughts on the preview?

[@nd_1]

The game really didn't show me much because Wellston massed subbed pretty much every couple minutes and didn't play normal starters, but thats how the preview goes every year. I guess we will just see in the upcoming monthes what these teams have.

[fasteach]

what i saw was wellston looking at every kid it had. the tall kid looked like he wanted to play anywhere but under the basket. if he would they would do really well. heck he even brought the ball up 1ce. he needs to establish himself close and shoot lay-ups all night long. at 6'8" he was at least 6" taller than any meigs player and he jumps like a deer. he could have dunked all night but not from the 3 point line.

[allsport12]

The tall kid is the Love boy who played a year and half at Oak Hill for Norm as the point guard. He is a next level wing player. Not a post player. Wellston is using him correctly. He has already signed DII from what I hear which is a shame. With a good year, I think he could play mid major DI. He is not strong enough to play under the basket. Very easily shoved around. But a really good perimeter player.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here is the Wellston boys season preview story for Tuesday's Times-Journal winter sports preview section. I'll post the other ones (VC, Oak Hill and Jackson) later leading up to the games this weekend. Enjoy.

Rockets return experience, aim for improvement

By PAUL BOGGS
Sports Editor

WELLSTON — With a return of experience comes a reversal of recent fortunes for the Golden Rockets.

At least that is the anticipation for the Wellston High School boys basketball team.

The Golden Rockets, laden with experienced juniors and seniors, return the nucleus of their team, and are aiming for a turnaround after suffering five consecutive losing seasons.

For Wellston head coach Jim Derrow, who enters his 23rd season as the Rockets’ bench boss, the honest outlook for this season is much brighter than the recent past.

“On paper, we seem to have a nice mixture of kids,” said Derrow. “I think this year’s team has the potential to be a much better team at both ends of the floor. We’ve grown up quite a bit.”

Did the Rockets ever.

Wellston won just three games two years ago and only four last season, but started several sophomores last year along with graduated seniors Andy Derrow and Aaron Jackson.

“It’s difficult to play sophomores on the varsity level,” said Coach Derrow, who has 270 career wins at the school but only 18 over the past four seasons.

But the silver lining of last season’s cloud was that many of this year’s juniors gained valuable varsity experience.

Of the 15 players on the Rockets’ roster, two-thirds of them are juniors or seniors, with five of them actually earning letters and two others seeing spot minutes.

While this may not be a golden age of Wellston basketball, the talent and experience level is there for continued improvement.

“With the collection of kids we have this year, we feel we have a better outlook going in,” said Derrow. “This particular team has a lot of good kids which care, and that’s really a chemistry to have success.”

Add some Love — six-foot-eight-inch senior Casey Love that is — and the Rockets may be ready to re-challenge in the Tri-Valley Conference Ohio Division.

Wellston, after its last TVC-Ohio title in 2003, has finished third or worse in the division for the past five seasons.

But the inclusion of Love gives the Rockets a “very versatile young man who is 6-8 and can guard the perimeter or the inside.”

“He can play all five positions, which we plan to do with him,” said Derrow. “He’s another senior leader and a kid who has been through the battles and has been a winner. We’re just real excited about the addition of him.”

Love last played a full season two years ago, and was Division III Honorable Mention all-district as a sophomore at Oak Hill.

He played an integral part of the Oaks’ historic run to the Division III regional tournament, but left the Oaks over halfway through last season.

Love, point guard Slone Cales and shooting guard Tyler King are this season’s three seniors, as Cales started along with Jackson, Andy Derrow, Jeff Matteson and Cody Wilkett.

Matteson made the most progress as a sophomore, and earned all-TVC-Ohio and Honorable Mention all-district (both District 13 Coaches Association and Division III Southeast District Associated Press) for his efforts.

Matteson, at six-foot-three, returns inside along with Wilkett and Ryan Darnell as the forwards and Cales as the shooting guard.

King will come in off the bench to shoot along with Cales.

“Slone Cales, Jeff Matteson, Cody Wilkett, Ryan Darnell and Tyler King were kids that were called upon last year to stand up and do some things at the offensive end and also be leaders at the defensive end,” said Derrow. “They’re not really going to be counted on, night in and night out, to score a lot of points, but they just do a lot of good effort things.”

Matteson was the Rockets’ top scorer last season, and gives a good complement to Love, Derrow explained.

Wilkett will be expected to be the anchor defender, while Darnell adds strength to the inside.

The remainder of the Rockets’ roster consists of five freshmen, including the highly-touted Jaylen Prater, who is expected to start.

Prater enrolled in the Wellston district in July, and was regarded as a standout athlete at the lower levels in Vinton County.

“People have to be patient with Jaylen from the standpoint of the consistency level, and he has a lot to learn, but he is definitely one of the better post players we have on the offensive end,” said Derrow. “For a young man who is 14 years old, he understands his strengths and weaknesses.”

Two other freshmen — guards Austin Osborne and Ty McNelly — are also expected to contribute.

Rounding out the roster are juniors Seth Weikert, Jake Arthur, Ryan Wagener and Chris Osborne and freshmen Grant Thompson and Brandon Walton.

Weikert and Arthur played primarily reserve last season, though they did see some sparse minutes on the varsity.

Derrow cautioned that for the experience which returns, “we have a lot of work to do.”

“We have to improve on cohesiveness and learn to play together, and we have to learn to play hard every day,” he said. “We have to play hard for longer periods of time, too.”

Especially on the defensive end.

“I’m not real sure yet that we are committed to the defensive end like we have to be,” said the coach. “Our real good teams that we’ve had here, and I pound this into our kids’ heads every day, really got upset when a team scored on them. So far, this group hasn’t really bought into that idea yet. But we have to, because I think we’re going to be able to score enough points to be competitive. But for us to be more than competitive and have a special year, you have to guard and guard each and every trip (possession). We’re not there yet. We’re not a team right now that is talented enough just to trade baskets.”

Derrow said this team “has to do the little things well.”

“We’re stressing that each and every day,” he said. “We have to force more turnovers than the other team, and we have to win the battle of rebounding. We have to communicate better. Just because a lot of these guys played a lot last year, that doesn’t automatically mean you are going to be better. When you don’t have success like we haven’t had lately, you have to change culture.”

With the exception of Love and Matteson, the remainder of the Rockets are six-foot-two or shorter.

“We’re not real big compared to some of the teams we’re going to play,” said Derrow.

Among those teams are two-time defending TVC-Ohio champion Vinton County on Friday.

In fact, Vinton County currently owns a 10-game win streak on the Rockets, beginning with the first matchup between the two five years ago.

Wellston also faces the tall and talented Oaks just two days before Christmas.

Two days after Christmas, the Rockets travel to Orlando, Fla. for three games in the Rock Holiday Classic.

After it returns home, and after the turn of the new year, Wellston will travel to Jackson Jan. 6 before hosting Detroit Consortium in the Hoops Classic Jan. 17.

With the exception of Ohio Valley Christian and Hannan (W. Va.) on back-to-back Tuesdays to start the season, the remainder of the Rockets’ bouts are TVC-Ohio tilts.

“We’re playing a really good and competitive non-league schedule and our conference has tremendous teams,” said Derrow. “The TVC this year is talented and probably as balanced as its been. We’ve made an improvement in our talent and experience level, but so has everybody else.”

So what can separate the Rockets from the rest of the contenders this season?

“It’s just a situation where we have to do a lot of things right to be able to win. I think we’re going to be much more competitive,” said Derrow. “Last year, we weren’t very competitive and there were reasons why. We didn’t guard well and we didn’t score. That’s just a bad combination. This year, we are much better offensively, we’re athletic enough and we’re older, but we also have to improve tremendously on defense if we want to compete for a title and to win as many games as we would like to do. I see a glimmer of hope, but we’re not there yet.”

sports@timesjournal.com

[JoeGatto]

Wow how low have things sunk in Wellston for them to be playing Ohio Valley Christian AND Hannan in the same season? I can remember when Wellston would have laughed at the thought of playing teams like that, even with the likely tough teams they'll play on their trip to Florida. I'm not saying it's a bad thing because when you're down you need to do everything you can to build it back up even if it means scheduling for sure wins to build your players' confidence. I'm just saying I'm surprised to see it.

[fasteach]

i was not being critical, i think. the kid clearly has tons of talent and looked like he could play wing, it is just at wellston, he probably should play center. he did not get pushed out at all. really talented. he needs to pull the rest of the team up to his level just like gut did for vc. if he does, wellston may be a force.
and yeah, he looks like with some polish and he could maybe play major college, forget mid-major!