Lincoln Head Coach Rodney Klein encourages his players during a drill at a pre-season practice.
CAMBRIDGE CITY, Ind. – Lincoln Head Coach Rodney Klein may have seven seniors on the boys basketball roster as he begins his seventh season with the Golden Eagles, but the team is short on experience.
“I like the way we are going right now,” Klein said. “We’re young and we don’t have a lot of experience back.”
There are only two returning starters from last year’s 14-8 squad that tied for third in the Tri-Eastern Conference at 4-3.
All-TEC performer Garrett Pumphrey is a four-year starter, while Caleb Craig is in his third season.
“Those two guys have a lot of experience on the varsity level,” Klein said.
Pumphrey led the Golden Eagles last season with 17.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 6.6 blocks per contest.
“For us to be able to compete this year, it’s going to come down to two things,” Klein said. “That’s handling the ball and somebody has to be able to step up and hit shots other than Garrett.”
“We’re going to have to knock some shots down,” Klein continued. “(Garrett) is going to have to be aware of where the ball is and where the double teams are coming from and probably in some instances triple teams are coming from
The other seniors are Austin Wampler, James Pugh, Carter Mettler, Bryce Smith and Travis Hornsby.
“We’ve got some kids that understand the game well,” Klein said.
Erich Vernon is the only junior, while Hayden Pierce, Cameron Gwin and Wyatt Lynn are sophomores. Darian Bishop and Bryce Pennington are freshmen.
The Golden Eagles start the season at Wes-Del on Wednesday. Lincoln’s TEC opener is at Knightstown on Friday, Dec. 8.