CNO Photo by Nancy Feldner, splitsecondsports.com

MV in rebuilding mode
By George Starks  
November 21, 2011 

UNION CITY - To look at the Mississinawa Valley roster, one would be led to believe the 2011-12 edition of Blackhawk basketball is chock full of experience. 

After the OSHAA tournament, the Hawks finished with a 10-11 record, losing one game due to weather. After losing in the second round of the sectionals, the Hawks lost a ton of experience. 

With five seniors and five juniors headlining the varsity roster, Hawks coach Jason Burkholder has a lot of work to do to get his team ready. 

“We are heavy with upper classmen but we are not experience heavy,” said Burkholder. “We lost 95 percent of our scoring to graduation in Larry LeMaster and Gary Peace. They were the biggest chunk of our offense and we lost Alex Murphy who did it all and led the team in rebounding. In addition, we lost Tyler Stewart who just brought everything together. So when you lose four quality guys like that, you lose that leadership and experience. We are going through that growing pain right now. We are looking for leadership and it will come. Some of the guys aren’t prepared for the roles I had for them this year so it’s taking a little while for them to wrap their heads around that. The last couple of days of practice, I’ve seen some good things so we will get to where we need to be. To say we are in a re-building mode is a good phrase for this team.” 

In his third year at the helm at Mississinawa Valley, Burkholder hasn’t changed too much but will make some changes this year. “We are implementing a couple of new things this year so there is something of a learning curve there,” said Burkholder. “The guys know my cadence and they know what I expect so from that standpoint, it’s been great. We haven’t had to take as much time teaching as we normally would. But if the guys aren’t ready to step into their roles, it’s going to be a struggle, and the first couple of weeks it has been a struggle. We are starting to see some things that are turning in the right direction so that’s put me in a better mood. I expect them to get it down though.” 

Burkholder has yet to set a starting five with opening night just a little over a week away. 

“Everything is wide open right now,” Burkholder admitted. “The starting five I put on the floor on opening night may not be the same five I put on the floor the next night. I’m still trying to find the right group and the right chemistry. 

“I’ve always said until we get a 6-7 husband with a 6-1 wife, we are going to struggle size wise,” Burkholder continued. “Right now, we don’t have that. The offense we’re going to run this year isn’t predicated on having a true point guard. We have a couple of kids that can run the point and another that can play a guard position but he doesn’t have a lot of time playing basketball and that is Dustin Whitesell. We have a shooting guard, Dalton Stump who is locked in the second he walks out of the locker room. We have a lot of guards but you don’t replace Gary and Larry. What we lack in experience, we make up for in heart. We will take what we can take and we will play our butts off in the process.” 

If Burkholder has seen one thing that helps the cause, it’s unity. 

“We have sophomores hanging out with seniors and I like that,” said Burkholder. “The sophomores push the seniors and it gets a little chippy in practice but I like that too because they are competing and they know there is no set starting line-up. I like the competition. The junior varsity team is eager and hungry so that keeps the older guys looking over their shoulders a little bit and that makes practices fun.” 

Mississinawa Valley will open up on the road at Newton and will go to Union City on Saturday, December 3. The Hawks will play their first five games on the road before getting Bradford on December 20. 

After Union City, the Hawks will play at Greenville, Fairlawn and Franklin Monroe before hosting Bradford and Curtis Enis on a Tuesday night.