Wilmington will face Walnut Ridge this season in the 2016 Premier Health Flyin’ To The Hoop basketball event.
“They are very talented,” said WHS head coach Mike Noszka. “They are like a Dunbar, a Marshall … that type of talent and athleticism.”
Wilmington and Walnut Ridge will meet 5 p.m. Jan. 16 at Trent Arena in Kettering.
Walnut Ridge lost in the Div. II state semifinals last season, losing to Cleveland Central Catholic. Walnut Ridge will be Div. I this season.
Noszka didn’t have much else to offer on Walnut Ridge, noting the game is still three months away.
“At this point in the season, if we’re going to look at anybody, we’d look at Cleveland Heights,” he said of his team’s season opening opponent. “We won’t start prepping for them (Walnut Ridge) until January.”
The Hurricane tips off the 2015-16 season against Cleveland Heights in the second annual Ohio Valley Hoops Classic Nov. 27 at Wilmington College. Cleveland Heights was 8-15 last season, a record that ended a streak of eight seasons with at least 14 wins. The Tigers won the Ohio Div. I state championship in 1996-97.
Jaylen Harris, a junior this coming season, is a 6-5 wing player who was on Cleveland Heights team last year and is one of the top players in Ohio. Yahel Hill, a sophomore, was the point guard a season ago and also one of the top players in the state.
Of course, Wilmington boasts one of the top seniors in the nation in 6-4 guard Jarron Cumberland, who has committed to the University of Cincinnati.
Cumberland is No. 2 on Wilmington’s career scoring list, trailing only his cousin Jaevin Cumberland. The Hurricane will be far from a one-player show, though Cumberland’s senior season is going to be very high profile.
“We have an idea of who we are; we have an idea of who we want to be,” Noszka said.
But that won’t ultimately be decided until practice — actual coaching — officially begins on Oct. 30.
Scheduling the Hurricane in such events as the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, Flyin’ To The Hoop and the Scholastic Play-By-Play Classic (opponent not yet set for WHS) is a win-win situation for the program.
“With the situation we’re in, where we are playing in a conference where the schools are smaller than us, we have to schedule up (bigger schools),” said Noszka. “I like the fact that both Walnut Ridge and Cleveland Heights are both Ohio Division I schools, and very good Division I schools.”
Even if the Hurricane comes up on the short end of the scoreboard in such events, the games still have long-term benefits.
“It prepares you for the post-season,” Noszka said. “And to be honest with you, it’s a lot of fun playing in those games, a lot of fun coaching in those games. The kids look forward to it.
“The atmosphere at our high school games at Wilmington is second to none. A lot of that is because of our school and our town. The atmosphere last year at the Scholastic Play-By-Play Classic (against Huber Heights Wayne) … there were coaches there who told me it was the greatest high school atmosphere they’d seen. It makes it special for the kids, the coaching staff.”
