Photo by Gary Handshoe, Handshoe Photography

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Gunter faces uphill battle at Arcanum
By George Starks 

ARCANUM- Posting a 14-7 record a year ago, Arcanum basketball coach Brian Gunter faces a uphill battle at Arcanum. 

With a successful campaign coming to a end, Gunter watched seven of his Trojans walk off the floor for the last time, never to return as players in a Trojan uniform. 

“It’s tough to replace quality kids like that,” Gunter exclaimed, now in his fifth year at Arcanum. “Seven very good seniors that were good leaders in the program for the last four years and they were with me as freshmen..” 

With that chapter closed, the Trojans will start a new chapter in Arcanum basketball. 

“This new group we are very excited about,” said Gunter. “I told this bunch we have this year that they are making their statement to the program and we want to keep it at the level we’ve been for the past four seasons.” 

With only three seniors, the leadership roles will be heavy on the shoulders of his three upperclassmen. 

“Mitch Brown and Chey Kramer are coming back with varsity experience,” said Gunter. “We are also excited about a young man that’s moved into the district, a kid named Brandon Clark. At 6-2, he’s going to give us some good minutes in the forward and post positions.” 

Along with the three seniors, Gunter will rely on six juniors, a sophomore and a freshman to contend for a Cross County Conference crown. 

“Junior Grady Garno is a three year starter,” said Gunter. “He’s coming back with tremendous varsity experience. He was with us for our runs two and three years ago so he’s no stranger to the varsity level. He has great court awareness and is just a tremendous player overall.” 

The other five juniors, Logan Burns, Dallas Johnson, Parker Buhrman, Donnie Kress and Simon Troutwine, were all primarily junior varsity players a year ago and will see their first true action at the varsity level. 

“We are trying to work with them,” Gunter said. “They are giving us some good minutes in our scrimmages so we are excited about them.” 

With a group that is just starting to mesh, Gunter wants one of his strong points to be on the defensive side of the ball. 

We have to play good solid fundamental basketball,” Gunter started. “We have to play good aggressive defense and we have to take care of the ball on offense. We need to run the offense and get good game shots. We are young and inexperienced but that’s the rotation of student athletes. I do think we have a good nucleus of players.” 

The group of seniors that just graduated from Arcanum won 60 games according to Gunter. 

“With what we lost, I still expect us to compete for the conference and do well in the tournament,” said Gunter. “This is a new group and that’s what makes the season exciting.” 

Arcanum will open up at home against Bethel on Dec, 2 before going to Ansonia December 9th.