Seniors hard to find on Moniteau rosters
CHERRY TWP— One thing Moniteau's boys basketball program always has had is plenty of seniors — until this year.
Josh Loos, Mike Kosick and Aaron Randall are the lone seniors on the Warriors' 2007-08 roster.
"This is the fewest amount of seniors I've had on the team in my eight years here,"Moniteau coach Randy Armagost said. "Usually, we have seven, eight or nine. It's just one of those years."
Moniteau finished 13-11 last year and graduated three starters: Matt Buczkowski, Adam Cousins and Nick Morrow. Buczkowski and Morrow are playing for Butler County Community College.
Returning starters are 6-foot-2 junior point guard Tyler Armagost and 6-4 center Loos. Armagost averaged 12.8 points, 11 rebounds and 7.4 assists last season. Loos averaged 11.3 points and 10.6 boards per game.
"Josh got off to a slow start because he was banged up from football,"Armagost said. "He averaged 16 points and 14 rebounds over the last 10 games or so. That's the type of production we're hoping to get from him all of this season.
"I'd like to move Tyler to two-guard and get more shots for him. But, for now, he's probably on the point."
That's because would-be point guard Mitch Czech was injured in an automobile accident recently and won't be back on the court until Christmas.
Another guard, Ricky Best, injured his kneein football and won't be available for basketball.
"That hurts because Ricky's a good rebounder and would have been one of our better shooters,"Armagost said.
With Czech out, sophomore Zack McCormick is being groomed for point guard and will begin the season there if ready. Randall and Clay Casper round out the starting five for the Warriors.
Top players off the bench are juniors Justin Lackey and Brandon Simmons, sophomores James Shope and Austin Hogsett.
"It's been frustrating because we haven't had a lot of guys in the gym just yet,"Armagost said. "We have more inexperience than we usually have and this team will have to jell together quickly."
Pat Kerlin, Moniteau's junior high coach the past three years, is Armagost's varsity assistant this year.
Mark Yeager enters his eighth year at the helm of the Warriors and returns only one starter: junior guard Maura McCaslin.Amanda and Amy Gladd, Kenzie Timblin and Megan Campbell are starters gone from last year's 10-14 squad. McCaslin averaged five points per game a year ago."Maura has worked so hard on her game and is a much-improved player,"Yeager said. "She's our catalyst on the floor."Joining McCaslin in the starting lineup are sophomore point guard Jenna McCorry, senior guard Gretchen McCormick, senior forward Ellie Hillard and senior forward Christi Kuzma.Moniteau doesn't have much height. Junior forward Chelsea Sellers is the tallest player on the team at 5-foot-9.What the squad does have is togetherness."This is a cohesive unit. All of these girls are very unselfish and get along well together,"Yeager said. "They will play hard for each other."We're not going to score a lot of points. We're going to have to hold teams in the 30s to have a genuine chance to win."While the Warriors don't have size, they do have a good post-up player in 5-8 forward Hillard."Ellie knows how to get in position to get off her shot,"Yeager said. "She's a very good fundamental player down low. But if we're not shooting well from outside or getting the ball inside to Ellie, we're gonna struggle."This is the type of team I won't judge by wins and losses. I know I'm going to get the effort every night. This group can't get enough basketball. They love the game."I think we'll be able to compete. At summer camp, Keystone was the only team in our league that consistently gave us trouble,"Yeager added.Top players off the bench will be Sellers and sophomores Kathleen Harding and Alex Guercio.Mark Kosick is Yeager's assistant coach.
