Sizing up the Bruins

Sports

November 18, 2009

By GREG KEIM The Goshen News Wed Nov 18, 2009, 01:06 PM EST

At times, coaching high school boys basketball is like working a jigsaw puzzle.

It’s all a matter of fitting the pieces together properly.

Veteran coach Jim Buller has five letterwinners back from a 15-8 Bethany Christian team which opens the 2009-10 season by hosting Westview next Tuesday.

“I think we have the pieces,” the coach said. “It’s going to be a fun experience seeing how we can plug those in.

“We have some size and some good outside shooters. We can go inside if teams guard the perimeter or outside if teams try to pack it in. A lot of our style of play will be determined by what the opposing team is trying to do to us.”

Buller begins his 31st season coaching the Bruins with a record of 329-322.

He is No. 2 on the Elkhart County boys basketball coaches list behind John Longfellow who was 364-163 in four seasons at Nappanee and 19 at Elkhart.

Three of the returnees are seniors in 6-4 Seth Kauffman (435 points), 5-10 Mikey Kelly (70) and 5-10 Jesse Ramer (69). Juniors are 6-7 Hamilton Thorne (49) and 5-8 Ben Bontreger (28).

Kauffman finished fifth in the Elkhart County scoring race a year ago and is the top returning scorer for the current campaign.

“Seth is a very talented player,” Buller said. “He is one I’ve had to good fortune to work with. He can jump and is a good shooter. Seth is a player I expect to draw a lot of attention from opposing teams.”

Kauffman netted 258 points as a sophomore and enters his senior season with 693 career points.

Losses to graduation were Mark DeLeeuw (273 points), Jordan Weaver (232), Tim Gautsche (19), Derek Plaster (19) and Jared Christophel (3).

Kauffman and Thorne are joined on the frontline by 6-4 sophomore Andy Slagel.

“After 30 years of coaching 5-11 players it’s going to take a little bit of adjusting to our size,” Buller said. “Thorne and Slagel are both big strong kids.”

The three seniors — Kauffman, Kelly and Ramer — are probable starters.

“They are providing good leadership, something we are going to need early in the season as the younger players grow up,” Buller said. “After that things are wide open. We have eight or nine kids that we feel can contribute.”

Buller also likes his backcourt of Kelly, Ramer and Bontreger.

“They should be one of our strengths,” the coach said. “They can all knock down shots and are some of the prime defenders. We feel we can run all night long with them.”

Other juniors on the varsity are 5-9 James Helmuth (2) and 6-1 Joel Yoder.

Sophomores are 6-2 David DeLeeuw and 5-11 Femi Hollinger-Janzen.

Bethany has added Triton to its schedule.

“We are playing Triton before Christmas, so we will find out early on who we are,” Buller said. “We have some growing up to do, because of the youth of our varsity. We have a lot of juniors and seniors, but many are new to the varsity level.

“Our practices have been very competitive. We expect to compete with other teams once the season starts and to stay that way for the entire season.”

Bethany will also be hosting a holiday tourney on Saturday, Dec. 19. Elkhart Christian and Lakeland Christian meet in the 10 a.m. opener, followed by the Bruins and Clinton Christian around 11:30. The consolation is slated for 4 p.m. and championship around 7:30.

Assistant coaches are Chad Stoltzfus, Dan Bodiker, Trevor Daugherty and Barry Johnson.

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Sizing up the Bruins

The Goshen Housing Authority has a $571,050 shortfall. Should the Goshen City Council use money from its $4.7-million “rainy day” fund to pay the debt and maintain the current level of service provided by the voucher program?

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