Hauser’s Ledger Gelfius drives to the basket against Waldron’s Will Larrison Feb. 20 at Hauser High School.
The Hauser boys basketball team left last season unsatisfied with the final results, but has been hungry for a lot more when they begin the upcoming season.
The Jets had the most wins since the 2007-08 season last year with 18, but settled for a sectional runner-up finish after falling to Switzerland County on a shot in the final seconds.
Hauser fined-tuned many things during the month of June in which teams are permitted to practice and play games. Even with the move back down to Class A, there’s still a ton of potential the Jets want to show in their third year playing together on varsity.
“It’s a very motivated group. They’ve had success, and they’ve had that heartbreak, as well,” Hauser coach Trent Moorhead said. “We still feel like we have something to prove, and I think that can be a lethal combination for our opponents that we’re going to see when we combine that success that we had with coming up a little bit short late last year.
“It was something we talked about right at the end of last season is that success can bring complacency and losing that last game keeps us from being complacent this offseason,” he added. “I think they’ll be some real positives that come from it. As we turn our attention to next season, we’re going to keep using it to fuel us.”
The Jets played 18 games during June. They hosted a variety of teams in a summer league every Wednesday, including Columbus North, Jennings County, Trinity Lutheran, Milan, Franklin County, Greenwood Christian Academy, Lawrenceburg, Jac-Cen-Del and Austin.
The team also went to Bloomington to play five games and went to Hanover to play three games. Hauser finished up with the Charlie Hughes Shootout, where it earned wins against Bishop Chatard and Loogootee.
Hauser’s Taeshaun Tungate shoots over South Decatur’s Taylen Absher Jan. 26 at Hauser High School.
More good news for the Jets is that they return the exact same lineup as last year. It’s led by incoming seniors Ledger Gelfius, Taeshaun Tungate and Alex Cord and incoming juniors Stryker Gill, Kam Blair, Gavin Keller and Waylon Harper. The Jets will add another big piece to the main rotation with incoming senior Collin Buck, who has been riddled with injuries over the past couple years. Incoming senior Jentzen Bechtel, juniors Bill Miller and Tyler Deiwert and sophomore Joel Bechtel also played varsity during the summer.
“We just don’t want to show up and do what we did last year. We have a different mindset how we’re going to approach every game this year,” Moorhead said. “We’re focusing on day-to-day… It’s a hungry group, a motivated group and an experienced group, so all those things are going to allow us to have a different way we approach each day this season, and I’m excited about it.”
