Columbus North’s Cooper Horn shoots a layup against Southport at Columbus North, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Paige Grider for The Republic
Columbus North boys basketball coach Paul Ferguson was in a little unfamiliar situation this fall, when half of his varsity players were playing football for the Bull Dogs.
That included a couple of first-time football players, including Cooper Horn, who is North’s top returner on the basketball court.
“It was a little different year for us because we had a lot of multi-sports athletes playing football,” Ferguson said. “Five of our 10 varsity players were football guys, so that’s a little different than we’ve had the past two years. They weren’t in basketball shape, but you see the benefits of strength and physicality from the football season.”
Horn, a 6-foot-2 junior, will be counted on to pick up a lot of the scoring load vacated by two-time The Republic Boys Basketball Player of the Year Blake Barker, who now is playing at Army. Horn averaged 11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 steals and led the Bull Dogs with 1.6 steals a game last year.
The other returning starter is 6-7 senior Sam King. King averaged 5.1 points and 3.7 rebounds last season.
“Both of those guys have the experience of being starters last year,” Ferguson said. “They’ve really assumed the leadership role in the program, and I think they’re both poised to have outstanding seasons.”
After that, the experience level falls off big-time for North. The rest of the returning cast scored a combined 12 varsity points last season while playing almost exclusively at the JV level.
Most of the rest of the remaining varsity experience comes from 5-11 junior Luke Harmon and 6-0 junior Ty Ferguson, who will share the point guard duties.
“I think it will be point guard by committee,” Paul Ferguson said. “We have multiple people who can handle it, mainly Luke and Ty and Cooper.”
Battling for the other starting spots are 5-8 senior Rhett Harmon, 6-0 senior Carson Dibble and 5-11 junior Tyler Blythe.
“Those are guys that all played at the JV level that we’re expecting to come in and play big minutes for us this year,” Paul Ferguson said. “They all had good JV seasons last year. I think we worked out some of those kinks this summer, but there’s nothing like getting that experience against varsity teams.””
Ben Kleinhenz, a 6-7 senior is back after not playing last year. Connor Hensley, a 5-10 sophomore, could see varsity action, and 6-2 junior Damon Edwards likely will split time between varsity and JV.
The Bull Dogs has a shortened season last year after twice being sidelined by COVID quarantining. They went 11-5, including 3-0 in winning a share of the Conference Indiana title.
“We lost a lot of talent,” Paul Ferguson said. “We had a senior class that played a lot of minutes for us. But I also think our senior class left a legacy, and it’s a legacy of a very diligent work ethic and a very positive team culture. Those guys set a tone that has carried over to this year’s group. So even though they’re gone, they’re not forgotten. Their legacy lives on.”
North went 16-6 during the June period in which teams could practice and play games.
“It was a very productive offseason,” Paul Ferguson said. “We had a really good run in the summer. We were pleased with it.”
The Bull Dogs open the season with three home games next week. They host Heritage Christian on Tuesday, Jennings County on Friday and Seymour on Saturday.
“Our Thanksgiving week will be exciting to see where we’re at,” Paul Ferguson said. “Heritage Christian has Myles Colvin, who has signed with Purdue. That Jennings County team should be a good team this year. We’ll know a lot more where we’re at after that first week.
“Our No. 1 goal is always to reach our potential as a team,” he added. “We feel like we have a good group. Big picture, for sure, we’d love to win a conference title, and we’d love to win a sectional. I think everybody knows coach (J.R.) Holmes at Bloomington South has had a stranglehold on our sectional. But we don’t talk as much about winning a sectional as we do about getting 1 percent better each day. Our focus is on the process and not the end result. We say ‘Dream big, start small and be ridiculously faithful in the details.’”
