Having a new head coach for the 2023-24 season, the Whiteoak Wildcats will be looking to Greg Patton to lead the way in a new era of Wildcat basketball as they are replacing very productive players from a lineup that won 11 games last season.
Patton — who replaces Ryan Barnett as head coach, after four years with the program — was a varsity assistant last season. This year, being a first-year head coach for the Wildcats, he has a team that consists of two seniors, five juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen.
The lone returning senior for Whiteoak is Weston Blair, who played in 22 games and was a starter last season, averaging 3.3 points per game (72 points), 3.9 rebounds per game (86 rebounds), 1.4 assists per game (30 assists), 1.0 steal per game (23 steals) and shot 43 percent from the field.
The second senior for WHS is Dakota Clift, who didn’t play on the varsity roster last season.
Juniors for Whiteoak are Zander Roades, Aiden Crowe, Solomon Combs, Tyler Wessner and Jackson Tedford.
Last season, Roades played in 17 games, where he averaged 7.2 ppg (123 points) and 1.5 rpg (25 rebounds) as the sixth man.
Sophomores for Whiteoak include Sawyer Blair, Brady Brandenburg, Zach Igo and Keegan Eyre. The freshmen class consists of Jonah Michael and Christian Hite.
Blair, Brandenburg, Crowe and Wessner are returners from the varsity team last season.
“I’m expecting Weston Blair and Zander Roades to be the leaders of the team on both ends of the floor,” Patton said. “We have two sophomores (Sawyer Blair and Brady Brandenburg) who have made big strides since last year, and we want to see them making a difference on both ends as well.”
As a team last season, the Wildcats — who finished 11-12 overall and 7-6 in Division II of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, runners-up in the SHAC — averaged 50.6 ppg and grabbed 22.2 rpg.
That said, a majority of those players are gone, as All-Ohio selection and 1,000-point scorer Landon Barnett graduated. As the point guard last season, Barnett averaged 17.9 ppg and 5.0 rpg, as he was the SHAC Co-Player of the Year as well as first-team Coaches All-District, first-team OPSWA All-District and special mention All-Ohio.
Also gone due to graduation are Logan Bieler (12.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg), Carson Emery (8.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, All-SHAC, Coaches All-District and OPSWA All-District), Luken Roades (6.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg) and Evan DeAtley (4.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg).
Losing those talented players is tough for the Wildcats, but now they are looking ahead to the current roster as they have been working hard this offseason and shown improvement due to the work they’ve put in.
“We put the guys through some tough workouts in the offseason, and they really have stepped up,” Patton said. “We played some really tough competition in the summer to help us get ready for the season.
“This group of young men have really gelled together and pushed each other every day. The commitment they have shown has us looking for a good year.”
There is still part of their game to work on, with one part being getting adjusted to playing varsity basketball.
“We will have to get adjusted to the speed of playing at the varsity level,” Patton said. “As a group, we don’t have the experience that a lot of teams have in the area. We want to improve every day and look to compete with everyone we play.
“Our team is young and inexperienced, but we will play hard every night, and I look for us to surprise some teams.”
With changes within the SHAC this season, Whiteoak will stay in Division II, but will see Fairfield jump back down to Division II and Peebles go back to Division I of the conference. Last season, the Wildcats won seven games in SHAC action.
The non-conference slate of games for Whiteoak will see them face the following teams: vs. Felicity-Franklin, at East Clinton, at Northwest, vs. Clinton-Massie (Chad Hodson Classic), vs. Symmes Valley (Coach Young Classic), at Clermont Northeastern, vs. McClain and vs. Bethel-Tate.
“The SHAC is always tough with all the outstanding coaches,” Patton said. “We just have to come in every night ready to step up to the challenge. I see North Adams being the top team in the big school and Fayetteville leading the way in the small schools.
“We have a tough non-conference schedule by playing very physical teams. It’s always good to play against those teams to get us prepared for the tournament.”
Assistant coaches for Whiteoak this season are Schaefer and Wes Blair.
Whiteoak begins their 2023-24 season Friday, Dec. 1 on the road in SHAC action against the Ripley Blue Jays.