EGYPTIAN ILLINI CONFERENCE

Projected Order of Finish 1. Odin 2. Beecher City 3. Brownstown 4. Cowden-Herrick 5. Patoka 6. St. Elmo 7. Ramsey 8. Mulberry Grove 9. Christ Our Rock

BY JACK BULLOCK For the Egyptian Illini Conference preview – unlike in the past – ABV has put all of the EIC teams in one preview with the exception of Odin. The teams that cross-conference with the NTC are now featured on this page. Those include St. Elmo, Beecher City, Brownstown and Cowden-Herrick. Mulberry Grove, Patoka and Ramsey “keep it real” in the EIC. Odin is a big favorite here and those Eagles are previewed in the Midland Trail Conference elsewhere on this site. Just a couple of mouse clicks away. But it won’t be easy for those Eagles as Beecher City, Brownstown and Cowden-Herrick all have substantial attributes for championship scampers. In other words they can all make a run. Patoka is coming off of a winning season with a good group of kids while those “reconstruction-ists” at Mulberry Grove and Ramsey will try and keep pace. A new member of the conference is one to keep an eye on in the seasons to come. Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran is a fairly new school and a new entity in this league. But they have the right location to receive kids that could turn this into an eventual athletic powerhouse for Class 1A. The same thing happened at Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran a few years back. 2. BEECHER CITY Head coach Rick Cook became heir to this program when former head coach Terry Pruemer left to take over at Brownstown. Pruemer handed the keys of a “gassed up-turbo-charged” machine that could make headway towards being a very good basketball team. Although the Eagles finished just 10-17 last season – Beecher City played some teams tough and Coach Cook has a bevy of returning players back from a club that ended the campaign with a season ending 73-70 loss to rival Cowden-Herrick at the St. Elmo 1A Regional. Plus there is a newcomer to the system that should step in to some varsity minutes from the word “Go.” One of the top players in the EIC and NTC resides at BC, which will be no “comic relief” for the folks on the schedule this season. Six-foot-three junior Lucas Levitt – levitated over a lot of opponents last season by averaging 11.3 points and 10.7 rebounds a night. He put up some lofty numbers that included 11 double-doubles in points and rebounds for the season. He ended up on the NTC second team all-conference and first team all-conference in the EIC. Levitt should be even better this season. The help should come from two additional starters from a year past. Five-foot-nine senior Daniel Lagerhausen will run the BC offense from the point guard slot. He averaged eight points and two assists last season for the Eagles. Another starter for Coach Cook will certainly clog up the middle of the lane for Beecher City. Jordan Julius is a 6-foot-6 senior center who this coach calls, “the tallest kid I have ever had in any of my programs.” He played in just seven varsity games last season but has earned his way into the starting five. Another forward is 6-foot-2 senior Ben Kemme – who like Julius – play very little varsity ball last winter. Both will get playing time this season. For his fifth starter – Coach Cook has a kid that traveled a long way to end up in the City of Beecher. Six-foot-three senior guard Finn Peterson is a foreign exchange student from Germany. Peterson will handle the two-guard spot on the floor and should add some scoring and rebounding. The bench looks to be stable with Cole Ohnesorge – a 5-foot-6 junior guard that can step in to the point guard position. Two freshman twin brothers also have a shot at playing time for the Eagles this season. Drew and Dirk Levitt – younger siblings of Lucas – should be able to help out in the backcourt. Both are 5-foot-10 players who can handle the ball and shoot. Keeping them off of the floor will take a lot of work by the upperclassmen. “We are still sort of young but we will be exciting to watch,” said Coach Cook – who has 25-years of coaching experience at several of the NTC schools. “Beecher City will present itself as an interesting challenger to the teams in the NTC and EIC. We have a lot of returning talent and Peterson coming in makes us that much better. Win or lose – we will be an exciting team to watch!” OUTLOOK – This team looks better already from the club that finished seven games under .500 last winter. But for the Eagles program to take on the best in the NTC and even the EIC – someone besides Lucas Levitt is going to have to score some points. One of the things ABV noticed in the final stats from last season was that the good teams that they played scored a lot of points on the Eagles. Eleven times the Eagles gave up 60 or more points. Beecher City lost 10 of those games. This club must get better defensively this season if they expect to win the EIC and compete in the NTC. 3. BROWNSTOWN The Bombers get a new coach this season as the Terry Pruemer “Coaching Caravan” makes a stop at BHS. This coach has yet another good group of kids with some returning players that could end up in the hunt for the EIC title. Jared Winters returns for Brownstown and could be closing in on some career numbers for the school. At 6-foot-2 he appears on paper to be a bit small for a center but he plays much larger in the paint and - at 250 lbs. - he is what Dick Vitale would call a “wide-body” who is capable of rebounding and defending. He is a good athlete that can also run the floor. Another starter back for the Bomb Squad is Michael Kramer – a 6-foot senior. Six-foot-one junior Zach Rigdon started some games last season and will likely end up getting his name called for the starting lineup again. Look for 6-foot senior Dillon Holloway and 6-foot-5 senior Conner Riley to open the season at the Mulberry Grove Tournament on the floor. Holloway should be a scoring threat inside to compliment Winters around the basket. Following those five – Coach Pruemer mentioned three other kids that should make up the reserves. Six-foot senior Chris Stinebring, 6-foot-1 senior Joe Younker and 5-foot-10 junior Bryce Mason to find a few minutes each night. Coach Pruemer believes that this team has enough offensive skills to win some games but defensively they need improvement. “I think we have some size and it looks like we could maybe be a pretty shooting team and we will have some depth,” said Coach Pruemer. “The question is will we be able to defend well enough to win a few games? Another positive that I saw this past summer is that the kids play pretty well together and are good passers. Some of the kids are almost unselfish to a fault. OUTLOOK – This team has enough weapons to perhaps make a title run in the EIC but Winters and Co. will need to continue to improve if Brownstown is going to finish in the top half of either of the conferences. 4. COWDEN-HERRICK The Hornets finished 8-16 last season with a 4-3 mark in the EIC and 1-8 in the Trail. Coach Brett Boehm enters his second campaign as the head coach with a few players returning with some experience and ability, which is a good thing. The bad thing is that they don’t look like they are going to be very big in height. As a matter of fact – the Hornets tallest player is a 6-foot-1 senior Jesse Hager who will start for C-H. One of the bench players is 6-foot-1 also. Tanner Dagen – a senior – will help out off the pine. The rest can all fit under a six-foot doorframe. Topping the roll call of Cowden-Herrick returnees in scoring is Tyler Day a 5-foot-10 senior guard who clipped in 14.1 points a contest as a junior last winter. This kid was also the best Hornet at the foul line as he connected on 72 percent of his charities. Five-foot-eleven senior Colton Heiserman is next on the list at 13.3 p.p.g. Hager – mentioned earlier – averaged 6.8 points a game last season while teammate Zach Miller – a 5-foot-11 senior guard – added 5.9 per competition. Coach Boehm mentioned Tanner Seaton as a potential starter after having a season in 2008-09 where he added 5.8 p.p.g. Other bench players besides Dagen include 6-foot sophomore Alex Turner and 5-foot-9 sophomore Jalen Hovis. “Our schedule is tough on us as it is every season but the kids are looking forward to playing the games,” said Coach Boehm who enters his second season running the program. “We will have to play big and strong to succeed. Last year we were young and inexperienced but this season we should have more of an idea of what to expect in varsity games. We are hoping for a productive season.” OUTLOOK - The C-H doesn’t stand for Pure Cane Sugar but it would be “sweet” if the Hornets could “sting” a few more opponents this season and challenge for the league championship. These kids survived last winter and even won a regional game over Beecher City in February. But to duplicate that feat and to move into title contention the Hornets won’t be able to coast in any contest. 5. PATOKA The Warriors nearly pulled off a shocking win over Woodlawn last season on the Cardinals’ floor – leading the state-ranked team at halftime of the second round of the regional. Then the Cards came out of their coma in time to eliminate Patoka, 55-46, and then made their run to Peoria. Coach Joe Eddy has some good players back that can build on a late season run last winter but must replace a lot of offense with the graduation of six seniors including top scorer and ABV 1A Second Team selection Derek Back. Back averaged 25 p.p.g. last season and was “up-front” about his love of the long-range shot. Like Will Rogers – this kid “never met a 3-point shot he didn’t like” (109-of-246 from behind the arc last season). Also missing from the Patoka club is 10.9 p.p.g. that belonged to graduated guard Jeremy Whisler. Nevertheless the kids back for this coach look to be just as willing to work hard as this last crew that finished 17-13 overall and 4-3 in the EIC. Drew Baldridge is a 6-foot-2 senior who was second on the team in scoring from last season (13.9 p.p.g.) and the top Warrior on the glass (9.6 r.p.g.). Every team needs a hard-nosed defender and Patoka has one in Luke Murfin – a 5-foot-9 senior guard. While he wasn’t shutting down shooters – Murfin scored 9.7 p.p.g. while handing out a shade over two assists a game. This coach is looking for more scoring and minutes from Cody Allen – a 6-foot-3 senior – and 6-foot-1 senior Zach Thompson. Both were key reserves a year ago and their roles have changed into more minutes. Allen added 2.4 p.p.g. - the best of the reserve corps from 2008-09. Look for Sawyer Potter – a 5-foot-11 junior – to move up into a battle for playing time along with 5-foot-10 junior Josh Weaver. Five-foot-ten junior Zach Wadkins and Omer Despres – a 6-foot senior – will join 6-foot-4 senior Danny Rogers in the competition for important reserve minutes. Wadkins and Despres played in a combined 11 varsity games last season while Rogers is a first time player having no experience. “We’ll have a different look to us offensively this season because we lost some of our long-range bombers,” said Coach Eddy – a Ramsey grad who is in his sixth season as head coach. “We will be more of a half-court team on the offensive end. We will need to command the boards this year. Last year we wanted to play a “shootout” kind of game. We will be successful if our new kids can make the transition to varsity ball.” OUTLOOK – The Warriors beat some good ones last season and scared a few others along the way. If this team is going to earn that same kind of respect then they will have to do it more on the defensive end of the floor this season. They will also have to have some kids step up and show some offensive skills to keep teams honest defensively. They lack the firepower they had last season and that will hurt against the upper tier of this conference. 6. ST. ELMO The Eagles fell into some tough sledding last season – winning just a pair of contests on their way to finishing in last place in both the EIC and NTC. But things could have been much worse and this season is a brand spanking new day. Hopefully the Eagles will do some of the "whipping" this season as they return a lot of those same kids that grew up the hard way in 2008-09. Head coach Greg Feezel can envision across the board improvement this season with a group that graduated just one senior and returns everyone else in the program. St. Elmo will look to be better offensively this season as they hope to put up much better numbers than they did last winter. The top scorer from last season was Zeke Asher – 6-foot shooting guard that averaged 8.6 p.p.g. He was followed closely by several teammates in the numbers game. Nathaniel Maxey – a 5-foot-7 junior guard – tossed home 7.9 points a night as a sophomore backcourt player. Five-foot-seven senior guard Chris Logue was tops on the rebounding chart with 3.9 boards to go with his 7.1 scoring average. Six-foot-one sophomore Ben Sperry got to play a lot as a freshman last season and produced (2.3 points, three rebounds) good averages for a ninth grader. Six-foot-one sophomore Blake Pruett didn’t play a lot last season but he could end up in the starting lineup because of a couple of injured players. Adam Siebert – a 5-foot-10 senior forward – threw in seven points and 3.7 rebounds on a nightly basis. However Siebert has a knee problem so his playing status is uncertain as he may be out for the whole season. Also injured is Blaine Scholes – a 5-foot-8 sophomore guard – who suffered a broken ankle and his availability will probably be in the second half of the campaign. Others that should help out are 5-foot-10 junior Garrett Buzzard, 5-foot-10 sophomore Patrick Schaal and 5-foot-8 sophomore Jake Mansker. None of which averaged more than a point a contest in 2008-09. ”We should be better than we were last year and the kids had a good summer and have matured a lot,” said head coach Greg Feezel – who is 41-41 in his tenure coaching the Eagles. “We still have to find scorers and we are not going to be very tall. But these kids will play hard and we will see what happens.” OUTLOOK – The Eagles will win more than a couple of games this season. In fact look for marked improvement for this St. Elmo club. The kids that played and took it on the chin last season should be ready to dish out a few beatings to some of the teams that were hit hard by graduation this past spring. Five or six more wins on top of last season’s total would be a nice start to rebuilding. 7. RAMSEY The Rams didn’t fare too well last season in the EIC or anywhere else. This small club tried hard but the effort didn’t result in many wins. Ramsey and head coach Bill Eddy saw their season end at 6-20 overall and 2-7 in the Egyptian Illini. But like some of the other teams in its area – Ramsey will move forward with a lot of kids back and ready to get better. Coach Eddy has five players returning that played a lot and three graduated seniors to replace. The ones returning are the most important so we can start there. Andy Carter – a 5-foot-8 senior guard – is the top scorer returning in Black and Orange. Carter averaged 11.4 points a game for the Rams – who were dropped from the St. Elmo 1A Regional, 67-50 by Dieterich. Trevor Dixon – a 5-foot-4 senior – will also play as will 6-foot-3 Byron Moreland. Moreland averaged 5.6 p.p.g. and 5.7 rebounds a night. Noah Belcher and Ethan Carlock are both back. Belcher is a 5-foot-9 senior who averaged 1.9 p.p.g. last season while Carlock added 1.6. A couple of other seniors are looking to play this season. Josh Green – a 6-foot-1 senior – along with 5-foot-7 senior Russell Snow and 5-foot-11 senior Vinnie Thull will get to wear uniforms this winter as will some underclassmen looking for some playing time. Six-foot-two junior Blake Hadley and 6-foot junior AJ Thomas will have a chance at playing a lot of basketball. So will Jordan Johnson – a 5-foot-10 junior – who has earned his way into the roster. Some disciplinary issues have clouded the playing time picture for a couple of other kids that - according to this coach - could end up helping later in the year. “This group has worked hard for me and they have played pretty well together,” said Coach Eddy. “Losing Joey Keppler from last season is a big chunk of our scoring so we will need some kids to put up some numbers this season.” OUTLOOK – They are small and hopefully they will be quick enough to compete this season. They host their own Thanksgiving Tournament that will give them three games in the first three days of the season. Their guard play must be a plus to them this season and not a minus. Single-digit wins have been the normal result at this school for quite some time now and that shouldn’t change much this winter. 8. MULBERRY GROVE With a new coach in place the Aces hope to find some people to fill uniforms this season after graduating eleven – yes, eleven – seniors last spring after a 10-18 overall year with a 3-4 EIC mark. One of those kids who left the building was Jason Kendall – one of the school’s top career scorers who tossed home 12.9 p.p.g. last season. Jacob Tompkins was next on that scoring list and his 12.3 points are now part of the Aces' history as well. New head coach Chris Johnson - will have four new starters to begin the 2009-10 campaign with just a pair of players who saw varsity action in 2008-09. Quinton Lindahl did start a few games for Coach Jason Bauer and now Coach Johnson will need him to be a team leader. Lindahl averaged 3.5 points and 1.6 rebounds for a club that lost to Brownstown, 58-51, in the opening round of the St. Elmo 1A Regional. Alan Tompkins – a 6-foot-3 junior forward – didn’t make much of a splash as a varsity player last season but he will need to "dive right into the deep end" this season as a starter. The rest of the crew has even less experience and will be called upon this winter to mature in a hurry. Coach Johnson mentioned several players including Shane Rench – a 5-foot-10 senior – and several underclassmen that should get a chance to play varsity games. Six-foot-two junior Harlen Steed, 5-foot-6 juniors Zach Helige and Billy Nelson, and two 6-foot sophomores Jacob Rickman and John Rickman all have something in common. None of them spent a minute in a varsity game in 2008-09. All will need to be ready when the Aces host their own Thanksgiving Tournament this week. “We have a great group of kids this year that work very hard,” said Coach Johnson who was an assistant to Coach Bauer the past three seasons. “Although we have only two returning varsity players, several of our younger players are ready to step up and take on a bigger role on the team.” OUTLOOK – Losing that much offense and leadership will hurt some. But in the case here this program could turn things around in a hurry if these kids can become a cohesive unit. They don’t have much size but - then again – neither do most of the teams in this league. If all of the kids listed here are pretty equal then maybe Mulberry Grove can play enough players each night to wear down some teams. In any case – all shouldn’t be "gloom and doom" at the Grove. 9. CHRIST OUR ROCK LUTHERAN The Silver Stallions not only enter this league this school year but they make their debut on ABV. In just their fifth year of existence this private school scrounged up enough games last season against member and non-member schools to post an even .500 record at 10-10. Head coach Mike Shaffer has some decent kids to work with as he tries to build a winning program at this learning facility just west of Centralia. Back from last season are some good athletes that – according to Shaffer – should be much better this season. He mentioned 5-foot-11 junior guard Dylan Burmester as perhaps the best athlete in the school. Burmester has scoring ability and will be the offensive focus on the club. Joining him in the lineup are three seniors; 6-foot Tyler Allison, 6-foot Jamie Klein and 6-foot-3 Shan Campbell. All three of those kids played last season. Six-foot-two junior Brandon Ramsor also made the coaches’ list as a potential starter. His sixth man will be Ryan Lape – a 5-foot-11 senior. Four other kids will get substantial playing time for the Silver Stallions. Five-foot-eight junior Joseph Snyder, 5-foot-11 sophomore Ronnie Laughhunn and two freshman – 5-foot-6 Tyler Burmester and 6-foot Hayden Klockenga were all mentioned as participants. OUTLOOK – This could end up being one of those "Sleeping Giants" who eventually take a lot of beatings on the athletic fields and then becomes a powerhouse. None of the private schools in this area – including Metro-East Lutheran – were overnight sensations but this school is in an area that is a basketball hotbed. If this program can stay afloat they should be able to compete in the Egyptian Illini Conference. As for this season – the schedule suggests some tougher games that will continue the basketball education of all around the program.