Hounds will look for growth this season

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison’s boys basketball team brings back its leading scorer from the team that won the Southeast Conference championship last season.
Senior Nolan Guzman, though, will have a lot of new faces to work with on the court this season.
“These guys have a lot to learn,” coach Ryan Wilson said. “But it’s a team that wants to win, wants to be competitive, and they’re working pretty hard for me.”
The Bloodhounds went 13-10 last season, but 8-2 in conference play to win the title. That, though, was with an experienced team.
Guzman and junior Darius Foy, who started 13 games last season, have the most experience among the Bloodhounds this season. But Foy won’t be able to play until after Christmas break.
That puts a lot of the focus on Guzman, who averaged 14.6 points per game last season.
“He's our senior leader,” WIlson said. “He's our team captain. He knows that. For the last, I’d say, 10 years, he played with Julian Dear, he played with Dayton Lamar, he played with a bunch of guys around him. Now it’s his time to shine and be in the spotlight, and he’s handled that well.”

The rest of the expected starting lineup, though, is young. Lucas Helmick is a junior, while Aurelio Jaciunde, Brody Ulik, and Zeke Groves are sophomores.
Sophomore Reece Huey and freshman Jonah Tackett are also expected to play a big part in the Bloodhounds’ rotation.
“Every game we play, we're going to get more experience, we're going to get better, and we're going to learn,” Wilson said. “And these guys can learn to compete at the varsity level. Fortunately, we have some guys in our program that have played varsity baseball before. A couple of them have played varsity football this past season, so they understand what it takes to compete at this level.”
Four of the Bloodhounds’ first five games, including Friday’s season opener and Southeast Conference opener against Fairfield, are at home, which could help the growth process, Wilson said.
“I'm sure our guys will be anxious and ready to compete,” he said. “We had an experienced team last season that played four of its first five games on the road last season. That flips this year. So our guys will be playing in, hopefully, a comfortable environment with the home crowd, and that will help them gain some maturity and experience and all that stuff in a nice, friendly environment, as opposed to some other environments.”
But it’s not going to be an easy schedule. The Bloodhounds get Williamsburg at home on Saturday, West Hancock next Tuesday, then play at Mount Pleasant next Friday before hosting Pella next Saturday.
“Those first five games are going to be tough, and we're going to have to come ready to play hard-nosed basketball and do things well,” Wilson said. “And again, hopefully, with every game, we just get better and better.”