Four storylines to watch in Fort Wayne prep hoops

Over six months ago, I wrote about how the future year of prep basketball in Fort Wayne was going to be filled with a lot of intrigue. And while some of the faces and some of the places have changed, that intrigue has not.

Today, The News-Sentinel’s prep preview comes out and I urge you to read it. Not just because I designed it, but because it is chock full of great previews that give you plenty of information on all of the boys and girls teams in the SAC, NHC, ACAC and area.

The annual Fab 5 breaks down a terrific group of players including Caleb Swanigan, Jordan Geist and Karissa McLaughlin of Homestead, Snider’s Devlyn Williams and Deja Wimby, Concordia’s Reggie Tharp and DeJour Young, Carroll’s Chandler White, Leo’s Jenna Beer and Canterbury’s Darby Maggard. The 10 represent a lot of excitement this year and I for one am particularly interested in how dominant an athletic beast like Devlyn Williams will be and how Reggie Tharp incorporates his vastly improved game (it was never bad, but taken to the next level this summer) into the SAC season.

But when you only name 10 players, some get left out, simply because there isn’t room. So here are some more teams (outside of the obvious potential dominance of Homestead boys), storylines and players that I am most intrigued about this coming season:

—    Can anyone stop the Homestead girls either? Yes, Karissa McLaughlin is sensational, as good as any sophomore girl we’ve had in this area in years, perhaps back to Canterbury grad Megan King. But she has a pretty substantial lineup around her, led by senior Josie Fisher, who is absolutely one of the top 10 players in this area. As dominant as the boys team will be, this Spartan girls squad, under Rod Parker’s leadership, may be pretty close to unbeatable.

—    Sean McGee. The North Side senior is the key to the whole thing for a program coming off back to back Summit Athletic Conference titles. The Redskins lost a lot. And I mean, a lot from last year’s 2-loss team. But they also have a lot new. Jajuan Starks (Northrop) and Jaylen Butz (Bishop Luers) as move ins and the return of a tenacious defender in Terrell Crews are all fantastic for a team who could have been stuck in rebuilding mode. But, McGee is a legitimate scorer who could absolutely be the best guard in this area. What he does on the court, and off the court, could hamper the Redskins or make them a threat to challenge Snider and Concordia for a third straight title.

—    Let me talk about Horizon Christian. In today’s News-Sentinel, yours truly has a feature story on a kid named Keonte Jenkins. What I learned talking to Keonte and his coach is that he is a remarkable kid. You can check out the N-S for more on that. What I can tell you here is that I am absolutely intrigued to see this squad play this season. They aren’t IHSAA sanctioned, they aren’t going head to head with the best of the best all of the time, but games locally against Wayne, Bishop Luers and Canterbury are going to be something interesting to watch. Jenkins is a primetime, get to the basket scorer. And now, Marco Lee, who played sparingly at North Side last year, is alongside him and showing what he can. Lee is a score first point guard who is quick and scored 23 in his Horizon debut over the weekend. Yes, he sat the bench more often than not as a junior, but he wasn’t on the bench for just anyone, it was for one of the best teams in the entire state in any class of the IHSAA. A Lee/Jenkins combo helps make the Jaguars some threat to knock off a pair of SAC schools this year.

—    What makes South Side’s girls team so good? When you look at the city schools, there is quite the disparity between the top (South Side) and the bottom (North Side). And it isn’t just this year, it is every year. North Side has swapped in and out coaches over the last ten years and never been able to crawl up the order, even with some talented players. But South Side, a pretty identical school in theory, is always at the top, even with coaching swaps. The answer: Goodwell. Basketball isn’t in the Goodwell’s blood; their blood literally is bad up of liquefied basketballs. South’s head coach Juanita and her husband David (an assistant at South and leader for Always 100) are two of the more intense, knowledgeable and hard working coaches in this area on any level. There is a lot of talent at South, don’t get me wrong, but any school would be lucky to have this pair.