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New faces on North Putnam's team and bench
ROACHDALE--Only senior point guard Michael Roberts remains from the starting five of last year's North Putnam Cougars boys' basketball team. Jordan Nauert, Shane Beaman, Beau Green and Bennett Hazelgrove all graduated in May and head coach Luke Haworth departed earlier this fall.
The vacancy of the headmaster position was not prolonged before Collin McCartt seized it. He already had connections with North Putnam and he had plans on assisting Haworth before he left.
"When you're in coaching long enough, you get to know a lot of people," McCartt said. "Somebody that I had previously worked with had some connections here. I was fortunate to be able to find some information out through them. I actually knew Coach Haworth, and I had planned to come here and work with him."
McCartt has a tenured coaching experience with three schools of head coaching and 15 years overall. He commenced as a head coach at Morton Memorial, a residential school, in 1999 and his portfolio also contains two sectional championships in two consecutive coaching years at Prairie Heights (2006) and Morgan Township (2008).
"This will be my 15th year coaching at the varsity level," McCartt said. "My ninth as a head coach. I've coached at a residential school, Prairie Heights and Morgan Township schools."
With a new coach usually comes a new program. McCartt is just trying to persuade his team to play hard every second of every game and practice. He wants them to understand that this is not an easy game and that it will take dedication to complete the tasks because if they do not, others will take advantage of them.
"Right now I'm just trying to teach the kids to compete every second they are on the floor," McCartt said. "I'm trying to get them to understand the level of intensity they have to bring to the court every second of the time."
Four new players will have to obtain starting positions, and most have little or no experience even playing varsity. Junior Kyler Jeter accommodates most of the leftover experience from last year. He saw some heavy stretches of playing time toward the latter part of the year and also had games where he did not play much at all. He and junior Austin Judy will play big roles in the growing process.
"I like the core group of guys that we have right now," McCartt said. "There are always guys who can react a little bit different when the lights go on, but obviously Michael is our guy who will have the ball in his hands most of the time. I like the guys around him and I think Michael can talk to them and help make them better."
Since McCartt received the head coaching job after the school year started his team did not have as much time to prepare, but they have improved since the beginning of practices. McCartt believes his team is starting to realize what the coaches expect out of them and that they are getting a team put together. With little preparation time, there is a long way to go before they will be textbook material.
"I think we've improved (since the start of practice)," McCartt said. "I got the job late, so I didn't get to really see any of the kids that are in football. They've improved definitely, especially on the concept of what we are expecting of them. It's still going to be a long process."
Freshman guard Treyton Smith and Judy will be counted on heavily and McCartt noted how well Judy is progressing. Smith has two older sisters who play on the girls' team, Morgan and Madisyn.
"I think Austin Judy has been good for us," McCartt said. "He's starting to shoot the ball well. I think the guys playing down low are picking things up pretty well. I think right now we are very young at the guard spot, but we will pick up experience as time goes."
One of the rare things about Putnam County is it have its County Classic within the first two weeks of the season. McCartt is using this as an inspiration because many teams do not have an opportunity to win a championship that early.
This year marks the last season of the West Central Conference because of the remaining five teams moving to the Western Indiana Conference. McCartt has inspired his team with how special it would be to win the last conference championship.
"I told the kids they are in kind of a unique spot," McCartt said. "They are able to win a championship in the first week of December (County Classic). This is also a unique spot because this is the last year of the WCC, so they are in position to win conference. To win the last one would be pretty special."
Most people probably remember the outcome of last year's county classic final. Cloverdale's Cooper Neese hit a midrange jump shot with under five seconds to go to win the game by two over the Cougars. North Putnam had controlled the entire game, leading by upwards of 16, up until then.
North Putnam, which finished with an 11-11 record last year and 3-2 in the West Central, will have a solid schedule to face this season. Nine of the final 13 games will be on the road and then they will have to compete in a sectional that contains 2A's number 5, Cloverdale and number 11, Speedway.
"I'm going to be honest," McCartt said. "This is an area of the state I've never coached in before. I'm not familiar with a lot of these teams yet. I know it will be competitive. We've got Cloverdale, who is going to be very good. We've also got Covington and a couple of 3A schools that are going to be good, so it's definitely going to be tough."
The Cougars will host their first game of the year on Nov. 26 against Southmont.