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New North Putnam coach will rely on seniors to lead
With a new coach and a new philosophy, the North Putnam boys' basketball team enters the 2014 season with new hope that might be unexpected from a team that lost its top two post players and the reigning Putnam County player of the year.
Head coach Lukas Haworth saw that attitude during his first meeting with the team.
"From day one, whenever I came in here before my first open gym, I told them that if you do everything in a way that shows that you love and respect this team, we're going to be successful," Haworth said. "We're looking sharp. You can tell they're hungry to win."
While the team lost leading scorer Jameson Brewer to graduation, Haworth said the team has to face facts.
Their talented rosters from the past few seasons have gradually improved, but still finished with just eight wins last year. That sub-.500 finish isn't enough for Haworth, and it's not enough for the players that wants more.
If there has ever come a debate about whether the new philosophies of the new coach were best, Haworth just pointed to that.
"I know that these kids and this program has worked its tail off the last five or six years, but the fact of the matter is that something has got to change," Haworth said. "Every time there was a little reluctance, I just reminded them that something has got to change or else the results are going to be what they've always been.
"That's pretty much been the end of that conversation and we've moved forward from there."
Moving forward means focusing on the positives and strengths of the team. Defense is one. Experience in the back court is another.
Seniors Shane Beaman, Jordan Nauert and Bennett Hazelgrove all have extensive starting experience and play both sides of the ball. They're also leaders off the court.
"Jordan, Shane and Bennett have been vital in the success that we've seen in the preseason so far and anything that happens this year, good or bad, it's going to be me and it's going to be them," Haworth said. "We're in this together as far as where we take this team, but it's got to be their team and I've told them that multiple times.
"If they make it their team and they hold each other accountable then we're going to have a very, very good season."
Haworth said part of his philosophy is to put the players in control of how the team plays and how they act toward each other.
Since he was hired, the team has focused on building relationships off the court, bonding and forming a basketball brotherhood that has infected the school and its rest the athletes.
If the players treat other well and help each other off the court, that will continue during games, Haworth said.
"I didn't have to push that brotherhood feeling -- that feeling of love and respect," he said. "It's been amazing to see the seniors take that leadership role to keep everybody together, to keep that brotherhood feeling alive and to see the underclassmen respond to it in a way that's going to help them be better down the road, too."
The Cougars will be a guard-heavy team, Haworth said, but they're also going to be versatile enough to match up with whatever style the opponent wants to play. NPHS is planning to adjust how it plays on a game-by-game basis, going small and quick when it's a benefit and bigger when there's an advantage.
The plan is to go into each game believing if the team plays together, they can get a win. They're focused first on the county tournament, then getting to the 10-win plateau as quickly as possible.
Reaching that point--and a .500 regular season--is something North Putnam hasn't done since 2007.
"We've got to get to that .500 season and start building from there," Haworth said. "It's not going to be perfect, but if we can learn while winning then that'll be a successful year."
Improve, he said, "And to come into sectional hopefully to challenge Speedway, who is going to be the obvious favorite, and be playing at a level that we can walk on the floor and beat anybody."