By Quintin Harlan, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer
ANDERSON — The Anderson Indians enter the 2009-10 season with two returning starters, a bevy of young players looking to carve out their own niche in the Indians program and having to replace more than just scoring and rebounding from last season.
A year ago Anderson coach Ron Hecklinski didn’t need to worry too much about where points were going to come from or rebounds and, most importantly, leadership as the bulk of those things came from Troy Taylor.
Especially the leadership.
Potential candidates to step into that vacated leadership position are seniors RoShawn Nunn and Tre Jackson.
“RoShawn is one of the elite guards, and you love Tre’s heart,” said Hecklinksi. “After those two guys, you’re drawing straws to find the eight or nine players that we need to play the style of play that we want to play.”
“I know we’re a young team and it’s kind of different for me,” said Nunn. “I’ve got to be the leader of the team and Troy set a good standard for me.”
Among the newcomers vying for minutes are Brandon McGhee, Marquis Goins, Derrick Dabney, Jaz Jennings, Jalen Beard, Travon Boyd, Chris Lemon and DeAndre Coleman.
“The players that are good enough to play for us will rise to the top,” said Hecklinski. “I just got to find eight or nine players that play the way I want to play, and it’s been a struggle trying to separate that group.”
Anderson will have a little more size than last year with a couple of players over the 6-foot-4 mark. But Hecklinski subscribes to the cliche that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
“What really matters to me is they get out there and get after it,” said Hecklinski. “If you’ve got players like that and they’re 6-foot-6 or taller, then the glory be to God.”
It’s been slow going in practice for the young Indians. Things that were seamless in past seasons seem to take a few extra sessions this year.
“We’ve been at square one and we ask ourselves are we at square three yet? If not, we’ve got to go back to square one,” said Hecklinski. “We want to re-enforce the basics of our program: transition defense, rebounding, blocking out. We’re not there yet but we will get there.”
“We’ll be a little shaky first couple of games because we don’t know where we’re at, yet,” said Nunn. “But by the end of the year, we’ll be doing good.”
Anderson will open the season on Saturday when it hosts Taylor at the Wigwam for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
“What I’m expecting is a good game,” said Hecklinski. “Taylor is a good team, and as far as what I can expect from my team, I don’t know.”
Because you can’t scout a team for that first game.”
As for the North Central Conference, Hecklinski sees Muncie Central and Kokomo as the favorites.
“I think there’s two pretty good teams and the rest of us are going to fight to see where we belong in the conference,” said Hecklinski.
