Edmonson County Boys’ basketball preview – Wildcats need to trust the process

 

 

By T. Wampler, JPI Sports 

The Edmonson County High School boys’ basketball program has a new coach for the second year in a row. Coach Brad Meredith inherits a team that finished with an overall record of  14 – 16 and went 3-5 in District 12.

Last season the Wildcats defeated Grayson County 61-53 in their 12th District tournament opener and finished as the district runners-up advancing to the Region 3 Tournament. ECHS lost to GCHS twice during the regular season but beat them when it counted the most.

Butler County beat Edmonson County in the championship game.

Coach Meredith is not a stranger to ECHS Athletes or basketball. Meredith has coached high school track and middle school basketball while serving as an assistant last season on the varsity. Meredith acknowledged there are always some difficulties that come with change and transition when a new head coach arrives to put in his system.

The coach said it does not help when his current group of seniors had three different head coaches in the last three years, but he feels like this group is up to the challenge. “We have great kids at Edmonson County High School, and I have a good group of seniors,” Coach Meredith said. “It takes time for the players to get to know how we want to do things, but even more important is building relationships when you are trying to change a culture. And my seniors are doing a good job helping me, all the players are, because they want to win and are willing to work hard to get better and become a team this season.”

Meredith said he focuses a lot on leadership and having players develop leadership skills. “It doesn’t matter whether you are a senior or a sophomore, we want our players to be leaders,” he said. “The players are an extension of the coaches on the court. We want all our kids to be good communicators and that’s part of changing the culture.”

The Wildcats lost 2 seniors to graduation and a few other players elected not to play or transfer. Meredith is not worried about who is not there but working hard with the players that are. “We have a core group of kids that love basketball,” he said.

ECHS will have 5 seniors on the team this year. The seniors are Kollin Doyle, Ben Sanders, Carter Swihart, Braxton Lindsey, and Tyler Brooks. Doyle, Sanders, and Swihart are all returning players.  Lindsey and Brooks have not played basketball in a couple of years, but Meredith is glad to have them on the team.

Meredith has emphasized the player-to-coach communication, but also the importance of having the doors open to player-to-player communication–on and off the court. “There is going to be a time of growing together, because a lot of what we are putting in is new,” he said. “But there is a time for players, seniors, anyone on the team to speak up, and that will come with time as we develop leadership skills.”

The KHSAA roster also lists 5 juniors and 2 sophomores as of 11-19-24, but that will not be the complete roster they have by their opening game.

Doyle and Tyler Wilson will return as two of the Wildcats top scoring threats. “Tyler is injured right now and will be out for a month or so,” the coach said. “Kollin is the only one that had significant varsity minutes last year. He is a shooter and a scorer for us.”

“Kollin is a senior and is going to have to step up and be a leader for us,” Meredith added. “We’ve been putting him in position in practice to be that guy, that leader and he has done a great job, being more vocal this year.”

Other returning key players include Sanders, Swihart, Daylen Cook, Tanner Bates, Blayne Deweese, Owen Ruth, Braden Wright, and Jasper Young.

Meredith said Deweese is one of his most athletic kids, but he just got to practice at the end of football season. “I threw him in the scrimmage against E-town and he didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “He is a player that gets after it. He’s a rebounding guard that can help us on defense with pressure.”

 

 

“I wish all our kids played like Blayne,” Meredith added. “He’s going to be a key piece for us this season for sure.”

Meredith said Wright is a “kind of a do-all player.” “He can shoot and handle the ball, and he is a great passer,” he said. “He can be a slasher when he needs to be. Braden is going to have to step up and be a big piece for us.”

Meredith said Owen Ruth and Jasper Young were both “long, lanky kids” that are athletic and are “rebounding guards.” “They have little or no varsity experience, but they could play significant minutes for us this year,” he said. “They will have to step up for us. They are not afraid to get in there and mix it up on the boards and get rebounds.”

Coach Meredith said the 12th District is always a battle and he expects this season will not be different. “It will not be easy this season with games in our district, our region, and our entire schedule,” he said. “Butler is picked to win the region. Grayson is a top three team in the region and Trinity is always going to play hard and all three teams are well-coached.”

Meredith said there are a lot of good young players in the district, and he expects the district to be “tough for the next four, five years.”

Besides battling with Butler County, Grayson County, and Trinity (Whitesville) in district games, Edmonson County will play at Apollo and compete in the Eagle Classic holiday tournament against Allen County-Scottsville, Webster County, and Morgan County.

“We are working hard on ball handling skills and drills right now because I want everyone to be able to handle the ball,” the coach said. “We want to push the basketball when we can, but in order to do that, we need everyone to be able to handle the basketball.”

Meredith said that will be critical to their success because they lack height and that means defensively, they will need to do a lot to “create offense.” He said they will have to be aggressive rebounding the basketball and blocking out to make up for their lack of true post, inside players.

“We are all 5’10’ so we may have to do something unorthodox on defense,” Meredith continued. “” We’ve been hammering that in and just now starting to put in the offense. We’ve been working for three weeks on defensive stuff.”

“We need five guys on the court to be ball handers, no matter what position they might be with that group of five,” he said. “I think when we have everyone here, and with a basic understanding of what we want to do on offense, we can have a good rotation and have players that come off the bench that can help us.”

Meredith said figuring that out was “down the road” and right now he was experimenting with different players to see what works. He said he has reminded himself that he has to be “patient.”

Meredith said that he has football players that just arrived at practice. He has a couple of kids that have not played basketball in a couple of years. He has just a couple of kids with varsity experience, and it is his first year.

Meredith said with a chuckle, that he is “not always a patient man.” “We all are going to have to be patient and realize there is a learning curve,” he added. “I told my parents in a meeting that we have to be patient. I also told them that the team they see in January will not be the team they see at the end of the season.”

Meredith said he believes they will be a great shooting team that can score the ball from different areas on the court.

“What I like most about this team is that we have great kids,” the coach said. “I don’t have to worry about what goes on in the locker room. If I’m late getting to the locker room, I don’t have to worry about arguing or fights, cussing, that type of thing.”
“And they are all coachable,” Meredith added. “That’s what I love about this group right now. They are soaking in all this new basketball information, but I also know that they all are trying to do the right thing.”

Meredith also told his parents that it was “going to be a process. “It is going to be a slow process,” Meredith said. “But I see a lot of potential and I’m excited and I think the kids are excited. I told them to judge us by how we are at the end of the year, not how we are at the beginning.”

“We should be playing our best basketball in November,” concluded Coach Meredith. “My goal is #1 to make sure my kids love basketball, love and enjoy coming to practice. We will need to trust the process and we will get better and be where we want to be by the end of the year.”

 

   Edmonson County Wildcats 2024-25 roster as of 11-20-24

#	Name	Position	Yr.	#	Name	Position	Yr.	#	Name	Position	Yr.
32	Tanner Bates		Jr.	33	Owen Ruth		Jr.	3	Braden Wright		So.
35	Daylen Cook		Jr.	21	Ben Sanders		Sr.	31	Jasper Young		So.
12	Blayne Deweese		Jr.	5	Carter Swihart		Sr.
22	Kollin Doyle		Sr.	1	Tyler Wilson		Jr.

 

Nickname: Wildcats

Coach: Brad Meredith

Region: 3

District: 12