By Travis Whitton, For The Herald Bulletin
MIDDLETOWN — Most coaches would be fretting over the idea of losing six seniors to graduation. Shenandoah’s seventh-year boys basketball coach, Aaron Cain, doesn’t seem concerned one bit. As a matter of fact, he sounds confident about his team’s potential.
Cain admits that his team will miss the players who graduated, but he feels this year’s team should be ready to step up their play and improve over last year.
“Our theory has always been that we are building a program,” said Cain. “So there should be guys ready to step in, fill those shoes, and not miss a beat and even improve.”
If Shenandoah does improve over last year’s 9-12 finish, it will be a good sign of things to come. The Raiders bring just one senior to the 2009-10 season and a roster full of juniors.
Having so many juniors doesn’t seem to bother Cain. He actually embraces his juniors because he feels they are a group crammed with leaders.
“The group of juniors that we have are used to leading,” Cain said. “You lead by actions not words, and as long as they keep leading by actions we’re going to be fine.”
Cain said he believes his team has a chance to improve over last year. His emphasis isn’t necessarily on wins and losses but effort and attitude. Cain said these two qualities are the keys to improvement.
“We don’t talk about winning and losing, I think that will take care of itself,” said Cain. “The main thing I want to see out of the players, I want them to have outstanding efforts and great attitudes.
“If they do those two things, on a daily basis, everything will take care of itself,” he said.
Shenandoah’s coach has confidence in his players, and his players will need to show they are confident in themselves as they fight through a difficult schedule.
Not only will they face the teams from the soon-to-be-defunct White River Athletic Conference (Lapel, Knightstown and Eastern Hancock), but they will also match-up against tough foes Pendleton Heights, Yorktown, Anderson Highland and Richmond.
Cain knows his schedule won’t be easy, but he knows if his team plays one game at a time it can win on any given night.
“The schedule is all hard,” said Cain. “All the teams we play ... on any given night could beat us and we could beat them.”
Cain knows his conference play will be difficult, but junior guard Joshua Bousman knows anything can happen when you get into WRAC play.
“We have a good shot,” said Bousman of Shenandoah’s chances of winning conference this year. “Everybody’s 0-0 to start the year.”
