Hauser’s Alex Cord drives to the basket against Henryville’s Sam Guernsey Dec. 11, 2021, at Hauser High School.
The Republic file photo
Trent Moorhead spent the past year as Hauser’s junior varsity boys basketball coach, so he has some familiarity with the program.
Moorhead was named head varsity coach this spring, and in the month of June, he had a chance to get an up-close look at his squad for next season when coaches were permitted to work with their teams in practice and game settings.
“It was great,” Moorhead said. “I’m really proud with the energy and the enthusiasm surrounding our program. I think we got off to a good start. We said at the beginning of June this was about setting the tone from the weight room to the classroom to the floor, and I think we were able to accomplish that.”
Moorhead worked with the high school group on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the weight room and on the court doing skill work.
“We were able to implement some of the things we’re going to be doing during the season offensively and defensively,” Moorhead said. “Because it’s a different style of team, we’re losing so much, there will have to be a different style. We have to play to the strengts of our team right now. We wanted to see what we looked like this summer playing fast and trying to compete against other teams for long stints of time.”
The Jets hosted a summer league for mostly bigger schools on Tuesday evenings and for mostly smaller schools on Wednesday evenings in June. They were a part of the Wednesday group and played two JV and two varsity games every Wednesday for four weeks against teams that included South Decatur, Trinity Lutheran, Austin, Jac-Cen-Del, Oldenburg Academy, Morristown and Milan.
“We’re fortunate enough to have the facilities and the athletic department that can put that on so we don’t have to travel as much during the summer,” Moorhead said. “I kind of stressed to our guys that I wasn’t as concerned with our record this summer as I was to getting our guys into getting good habits. We had some success, but we also had some growth and some learning in those games, especially for our young guys.”
Moorhead also took the varsity and JV to Hanover College for a shootout, went to the Bloomington Summer League on one Monday night and participated in a shootout at Southwestern (Shelby) on another Monday.
“It was nice to travel with our guys and get them some competition outside of just the local teams in our league,” Moorhead said.
Hauser returns two starters in incoming sophomores Alex Cord and Taeshaun Tungate. Incoming sophomores Ledger Gelfius and Collin Buck and incoming senior Alex Bower also saw plenty of varsity action last season.
Hauser’s Taeshaun Tungate drives to the basket between Morristown’s Nick Stidham (25) and Shane Riley (52) during a sectional game March 2, 2022, at Southwestern (Shelby) High School.
The Republic file photo
For the second year in a row, the Jets will have a talented freshman class. This year’s group includes Jake Barriger, Stryker Gill and Kameron Blair.
“That whole class has had a good elementary and middle school career,” Moorhead said.
Incoming senior Owen McIntyre is back after being injured last year. Incoming juniors Taylen Absher, Zach Weichman and Jamison Keller will look to make the move up from the JV.
“It’s exciting for us, the core being so young,” Moorhead said. “It means there’s a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. But it’s a very coachable and hard-working group, and they showed that this summer. We closed the last week discussing who’s willing to put in the work outside of this. I’m confident that we have a lot of guys that are going to build off the momentum for this month and continue putting in great work as we head into the fall.”
