Hauser lost its top eight players and its head coach from a team that won the Mid-Hoosier Conference boys basketball title, but if this summer is any indication, the Jets might not have too big of a dropoff.
Nate Cangany, who left a head coaching job at Waldron to become the coach-in-waiting at Hauser, led the Jets to a 15-10 record during the June period in which coaches are allowed to work with their players in practice and game settings.
Hauser went 3-0 in a shootout at Henryville and won all but one of its games in the Dan Sparks Team Camp at Rose-Hulman, falling only to Class 3A Vincennes Lincoln by five in last game.
The Jets went 5-3 in a summer league in which they hosted on Wednesday nights. Hauser also hosted an eight-team shootout on Thursday and beat Eastern (Pekin) and Rising Sun before falling to 3A Rushville by three points in the title game.
“By the end, I thought we were playing pretty well,” Cangany said. “With everything being new, we were trying to keep it pretty basic. We just wanted to see improvement, and talking to my assistant coaches, we felt like we saw a lot of improvement from Day 1 until now. We felt like there’s going to be an adjustment period, but we saw some really good things this summer.”
Will Trotter, who will be a senior, is the only Jet who saw much varsity action last season. Sean Miller, who also will be a senior, dressed varsity for most games.
Trotter and Miller led a JV team that went 16-5 last season. Incoming juniors Trey Johnson, Sam Johnson and Parker Eickbush; incoming senior Austin Chambers and incoming sophomores Austin Cord and Brock Thalls also are moving up from the JV.
“There are some other guys that may end up giving us a lot of minutes,” Cangany said. “We lost a good group. We don’t return any varsity experience, really, but the cupboard certainly isn’t bare. As the season goes on, we’re going to be able to surprise some people along the way.”
Hauser also could have the services of Jacob Walton. Walton, who will be a senior, started on the JV until injuring his knee in February. He reinjured the knee in spring and did not play in June.
“I think we have some talent,” Cangany said. “I think we have some versatile pieces. Our guys have bought into the defensive end. We want to play team basketball on the offensive end.”
As usual, the Jets will play a challenging schedule. They will play seven 3A and 4A schools, including early-season contests against Columbus North and Greensburg, plus an early MHC battle with defending Class A state champion Morristown.
“They’ll get thrown into the fire pretty early,” Cangany said. “We’ll have some growing pains, but we’re going to keep working and improving, and hopefully, we’ll be playing our best basketball in March.”
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This is the third of a six-day series recapping the summer basketball season for Bartholomew County teams. The schedule:
Monday: Columbus East boys
Tuesday: Columbus North boys
Today: Hauser boys
Thursday: Columbus East girls
Friday: Columbus North girls
Saturday: Hauser girls
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