Both head coaches Mike Wilken and Travis Williams acknowledged last week that the initial question asked about their upcoming basketball seasons was a legit inquiry.
Wilken saw 39 points per game graduate from his Fox boys team that averaged just 54 last year on the way to an 8-18 record.
Likewise at Seckman, Williams watched as 36 points went out the door for his boys, and the Jaguars went 7-17 while scoring an average of 48.3 per game.
So that first question asked of both coaches at practice last week was simple: Where will the points come from this season?
That question will start to get answered when Fox and Seckman tip off the season on Tuesday.
“I really didn’t need to know that,” Wilken said after he was told how little offense returns this year. “But we’ve got guys coming back – Cole Elwood, Chase Waters and Jaxon Trayanoff – who got a lot of minutes last year. And you can add Jake Gowen to that group as well. But that’s what makes it kind of exciting, that it gives opportunities for new guys to step in and step up. It seems like every season somebody new is doing something well. So that tends to make it fun.”
Williams knows new sources of offense need to be identified.
“We’ve been focusing on that all offseason, and these first two weeks of practice,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll find that, with 13 players, we’ll find some that have a lot to offer. I don’t know if we’re going to have an 18-point per game scorer, per se, in this rotation. But we could wind up having several players who are capable of making shots.”
Wilken might have gotten some more clarity when Elwood and Waters started practicing. Those two were toiling for the Fox football team, which saw its postseason run come to an end with a 42-23 loss at Jackson on Friday.
Other gridiron participants may follow, but the Fox coach is leaning heavily on adding the 6-1 Elwood and Waters and his 6-4 frame to the effort.
“Both are returning players, and seniors, who started games for us last year,” Wilken said. “And they were leaders of the group, so hopefully, we can kind of build on that. And we have some other guys who haven’t gotten a lot of varsity time. We might even, at times, have some sophomores playing varsity.
“Colby Reese dressed for a few games, had a heck of a summer, and has really shown improvement in the first eight days of practice. He’ll be one of our starters. Gowen has improved, and Trayanoff got better and better last year, so I think those three will get a lot of playing time this season. We’ll be outsized most nights, but I think our athletic skills will make up for our lack of size. To be really honest, I don’t know what it’s going to look like until we get it all put together, but that’s what I’m most excited about.”
Williams said he is excited, too, about the one that got away from Wilken. Isaac Hoog, 6-4, just completed his soccer season for Seckman, where he contributed 10 goals and 26 points. And last basketball season, playing at the junior varsity level, Hoog had a couple of 30-point games, Williams noted, playing for Fox.
“He’s an overall great athlete, played with us over the summer at the varsity level, and scored quite a few points,” Williams said. “So we’re looking for him to contribute to our scoring load.” Senior Jacob Deuster averaged eight points last season and is going to have to shoot more. And Josh Herget will step into the Jaguar lineup at point guard.
“Hopefully, being as deep as we are, and having fresh legs out there, we’ll have a different leading scorer every night,” Williams said.
“We’re trying to stay away from talking about losing games by 30 points, which we did a few times last season. I keep reiterating the fact that we lost seven of those 17 by single digits. If we had just shot 70 percent from the free-throw line, those could have been seven more wins.”
Fox and Seckman compete in the Blue pool, the lowest of the four pools in the St. Louis Suburban Association.