New Arrows coach  faces uphill battle

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By Skip Weaver, Staff Writer 2:48 AM Friday, December 2, 2011

CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee, the defending Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division champion, is looking to make it two league titles in a row this season, but the Arrows will have to do with a younger, inexperienced squad and a new coach.

Andrew Gerken takes over the helm of the program and he inherits a team that lost five seniors to graduation, including top scorer Dakota Bennett, who averaged 16.7 points per game last season.

But Gerken is optimistic the Arrows, who finished 18-3 overall and 10-2 in the SWBL Buckeye last year, can do what it takes to earn another crown.

“These guys are hungry to taste what the others have tasted the last couple of years,” said Gerken, who was the Preble Shawnee girls junior varsity coach the previous three seasons.

“The way we look at it is that the league title is ours until someone can take it from us.

“Although we are young, most of these guys have been in the program and they’ve been around the success we’ve had, so they know what it takes and they want to build on that success,” he added.

The Arrows are led this season by senior Jake Adams, who was the team’s second-leading scorer last year at 14.6 points per game.

Gerken said the Arrows will be a different type of team this year.

“We’re going to be more fast break and applying pressure on opposing teams to make them make mistakes,” he said.

The Arrows have some height in juniors Jake Elam (6-foot-5) and David Willoughby (6-4).

Roster

Player Pos. Ht. Yr.

Jake Adams G 6-1 Sr.

Matt Buell C 6-4 Sr.

Josh Hocker G 5-10 Sr.

Austin Jarbo F 6-2 Sr.

Dylan Mann G 5-9 Sr.

Jake Elam C 6-5 Jr.