Ottawa Pirates

The Ottawa Pirates are in the process of discovering their identity.
"It's the nature of having one returning player that played significant minutes (the previous season)," Pirates coach Mark Cooper said, "and you can look at it one of two ways: it's a negative because you don't have much experience returning, or we tend to look at it as a positive where we have a lot of kids pushing each other to play at a level maybe they haven't played at before."

Ottawa lost six players to Pomp and Circumstance — including all-state scoring machine and Times Player of the Year McKe Tucker — from the 2016-17 team that went 21-8 and played for a regional plaque. OHS's Class of 2017 accounted for 76.7 percent of the scoring, 79.4 percent of the rebounding, 78.7 percent of the assists, 76.2 percent of the steals and 95.7 percent of the blocked shots last season.
The lone starter back is Wyatt Hill. Kendall Brent was also in the rotation.

"If this isn't the most inexperienced team (I've had), it's right up there," said Cooper, in his 14th season at the helm of the Pirates (219-133 record — .622 winning percentage), of his 16-player roster, which consists of seven seniors, eight juniors and a sophomore, "but we're not going to use that as an excuse. You know, the expectations and the standards aren't going to change.

"There's no question we have a lot of big shoes to fill, but we had some kids that were on the sophomores or didn't play many varsity minutes last season that, you know, have been waiting their time, and they've had the level of dedication that we look for. And now it's their opportunity to play in the 7:30 game and see what type of role they can have.

"The competition level's been very good. We have a lot of kids that are fighting for minutes and positions, and it's our job as a staff to figure out the combinations to put together, which kids play the best with other kids. We have a lot of kids that we think can do some (good) things, but until we see it translate into practice and in a game, it's really hard to be able to pinpoint what we're going to be about."

One player who doesn't lack experience is the third-year varsity veteran Hill, a sharpshooting junior guard and "high-level passer" who's already got 57 games under his belt. As a 10th-grader, Hill averaged 11.8 ppg — knocking down 37.2 percent of his attempts from 3-point range (67 of 180) — 2.3 apg and 1.7 spg when he was an All-NIB 12 West Honorable Mentionee and Times All-Area Third-Team choice.

"We're putting a lot on (Wyatt's) plate, not only from a production standpoint on the floor, but a leadership position off the floor, and he's done everything we've expected and more," Cooper said. "He's a veteran piece that we have, and he's going to have to be a stabilizing force on the floor for us with so many inexperienced parts around him. And his game has really started to develop to where he puts a lot of pressure on the defense when he has the ball. So we're expecting to see a better version of Wyatt Hill this season."

The other 12th-graders besides Kendall Brent are Russell Brent, Luke Dougherty, Andrew Evola, Josh Jackson, Joey Owens and Slaten Swords. Other juniors are Tyler Carson, Noah Gould, Kyle Haerle, Keegan Landers, Aaron Koch, Ben Lundy and Alex Stevenson.

The roster also includes talented 10th-grader Myles Tucker, McKe's brother.
"Myles has a very high level of ability," Cooper said, "and now it's just a matter of getting him acclimated to varsity basketball and getting him to be able to do that on a daily basis ... but the skill set is there."
The '17-18 Pirates put forth the effort during the offseason to try and maintain the program's recent level of success this winter.

"They've taken the challenge of wanting to have a quality basketball team this season," Cooper said, "and now it's just a matter of being able to put all the pieces together to see if we can have some level of success.

"We're just kind of curious to see how this team evolves."
 
 
ROSTER
No. Player Ht. Yr.
2 Joey Owens 6-2 Sr.
3 Russell Brent 5-10 Sr.
4 Myles Tucker 6-0 So.
5 Kyle Haerle 6-0 Jr.
10 Wyatt Hill 5-10 Jr.
11 Ben Lundy 5-10 Jr.
12 Kendall Brent 5-11 Sr.
20 Luke Dougherty 6-0 Sr.
23 Andrew Evola 6-2 Sr.
24 Alex Stevenson 6-3 Jr.
25 Tyler Carson 6-3 Jr.
30 Noah Gould 6-3 Jr.
32 Keegan Landers 6-2 Jr.
33 Aaron Koch 6-5 Jr.
34 Josh Jackson 6-0 Sr.
40 Slaten Swords 6-0 Sr.
 
SCHEDULE
Date Opponent/Event Time
11/20-25 DEAN RILEY TRNY. TBA
12/1 at Rochelle 7 p.m.
12/2 ROCK ISLAND 6 p.m.
12/8 SYCAMORE 7 p.m.
12/12 at Sterling 7 p.m.
12/26-30 at Plano Trny. TBD
1/5 at Morris 7 p.m.
1/13 at Moline 6:30 p.m.
1/19 GENESEO 7 p.m.
1/23 at Yorkville 7 p.m.
1/26 ROCHELLE 7 p.m.
1/27 at Kaneland 6 p.m.
1/30 SANDWICH 7 p.m.
2/2 at La Salle-Peru 7 p.m.
2/6 YORKVILLE CHRISTIAN 7 p.m.
2/9 STERLING 7 p.m.
2/13 DEKALB 7 p.m.
2/16 at Geneseo 7 p.m.
2/20 STREATOR 7 p.m.
2/23 LA SALLE-PERU 7 p.m.

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