Tecumseh’s varsity boys basketball team doesn’t lose much, returns six seniors

There will be a noticeable difference in Tecumseh High School’s varsity boys basketball team this season despite the Indians only losing a couple of seniors to graduation.Tecumseh returns six seniors and two juniors, however, their leading point producer from last year’s squad has transfer issues with the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) and may not get to see any action this year.“Noah Willett transferred and then transferred back to our school,” said Tecumseh head coach Scott Norkey. “So there are some transfer things and the MHSAA is involved.”The coach said, “It might not be until next year,” that Willit, a junior, will be able to play for the Indians.Out of the returning seniors, Jimmy Terry was a consistent starter who also put points on the boards.“We’ve got Jimmy Terry returning for his third year varsity,” said Norkey. “So, that helps.”Terry is one of three team co-captions along with Evan Cadmus and Josh Arbini. There is potentially one other co-captain to be added.“We may name one more before the first game simply because Noah Willit was a captain,” said Norkey. “Since he left, we do have a captain spot. The coaches and I have been watching to see who is stepping up as a leader and we’ll choose one more captain.”Norkey was unable to share a starting lineup for the season opening game scheduled for Monday, Dec. 8, at Hanover Horton. The Indians’ first home competition is against Airport on Friday, Dec. 12, beginning at 7 p.m. Norkey said he would have a better idea of his starters after scrimmaging teams on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28-29.“At this point, I don’t really have a set five,” said Norkey. “We had tryouts last week. So, we’ve only had three real practices.”Also returning to the team are seniors Alex Gillen, Doug Sheats, Silas Rebottaro, Jeff Arnett and Josh Arbini and juniors Zach Watkins and Trevor Willis.Norkey felt his team did a good job at the end of the season in district action despite getting knocked off by Milan in the opening round of action. “We were only down by seven with four minutes to go,” said Norkey. “When I talked to coach [Josh] Tropea, who’s now at Chelsea, he said we gave him one of his best games.”The Indians lost 57-37 with Ben Vannatter scoring 15 points to lead the Indians offense in his final career high school game. Terry scored 10 points as the Indians second highest point producer in the season ending game.Tecumseh finished the season 2-19 overall and 1-15 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).“Our district’s changed,” said Norkey. “I think we do have a definite shot at winning the district this year. I can tell you, the last time we won a district was in 1995. So, I’d like to something special and really get this town fired up about basketball again.”Norkey said the look of the team will be the same but there will be some big differences on the defensive end. He added a new assistant coach this year in Sam Mitchell to help out.“Sam’s got eight years of experience at Adrian High School,” said Norkey. “He was with coach Comstock there when they won a couple of SEC and district titles. Having him is definitely going to help.“We’re going to change some things but we’re not going to add a lot of things. We’re going to try and execute the little things. Instead of trying to run 20 plays we’re going to try and run about eight plays and run them perfectly.”With the schedule change, Norkey said the Indians would have nine home games and 11 away competitions.“With the schedule change we don’t play everybody on the other side of the SEC. So, we have eight non-conference games this year, which is good.”