Young Warriors grabbing varsity team?s reins

The 1,486 points provided by five graduated starters a season ago will be hard to replace, but Van Buren boys basketball coach Fred Parsons isn?t too worried.

?We?re starting over, but we did have a good JV team last year, and that?s our team now,? said Parsons, who enters his 48th season courtside. ?They are very, very young, but they are competitive, and they are coachable. Given some time I think they?ll be a pretty good ball club.?

The high expectations after last winter?s 17-7 run start with sophomore Garrett Saunders, who received the most court time of any returning player last season. As a freshman, the guard dropped in 41 points while starting a handful of games at midseason. Saunders also chipped in 17 assists and 10 steals in his rookie campaign.

In addition to Saunders, Parsons sees a second underclassman, Will Mertens, making an immediate impact in his freshman season at point guard.

?Will had a good eighth-grade year, and he?s progressing and is getting better all the time,? said Parsons.

Joining Saunders and Mertens in the backcourt are junior Robby Laughlin and sophomores Brayden Starnes, Brandon Plecker, Noah Whitten and Pedrick Garrett.

Thomas Fitzsimmons, another junior, figures to start at forward and gives his team some much-needed height there; Fitzsimmons made 10-of-14 shots in limited time as a sophomore. Seniors Corbin Kisling and Wayne Mast, as well as juniors Tanner Smith and Casey Jones, will join Fitzsimmons in the frontcourt.

With all the bushy-tailed talent to choose from, Parsons said he hasn?t settled on a five-man starting rotation and probably won?t be ready to decide on one for a while.

?Playing time will depend a lot on the situation in games. It?s still too early to tell how it?s going to go,? he said.

And as far as the conference outlook is concerned, Parsons expects the frontrunners to be Danville, Burlington Notre Dame, Holy Trinity and then everybody else.

?Those three teams will be at the top and the rest of us will be floundering around,? he said. ?We?ll strive to be competitive and then when January rolls around we?ll see how things go.?

Hopes are especially high for Danville, which finished each of the previous two seasons as the Class 1A runner-up. The Bears went undefeated in the 2011-12 regular season and return senior twins Steven and Michael Soukup, who led the way with 18.5 and 17.1 points per game, respectively.

?The scuttlebutt has it [Danville] is a better team than they were last year. They just reload down there,? noted Parsons.

The Warriors open their season Saturday hosting New London.