JACKSON BOYS RETURN ONLY ONE STARTER

The goals for the Jackson boys basketball team never change, but some seasons it's more difficult to attain them than others.

Coach Steve Burk figures the Indians, with only one returning full-time starter, will face some big challenges this year as they try to reach their goals, but he's not about to count his squad out."Our goal always is to have a winning season and compete for the conference and district championships," said Burk. "We lost a lot of good players from last year and we might have to play a different style than we have in the past, but we'll see how it works."We're not very deep, we're not very big and we don't have a lot of experience, but our kids have worked hard and a lot of them worked hard in the offseason to get better, so we'll see."The Indians have put three solid seasons together, winning 54 games during that span, including a 21-6 district championship season two years ago and a 16-9 campaign last year."We had a solid season last year," Burk said. "You'd always like to do a little better, but I thought we did all right."Gone from last year's squad are five key seniors, including two Justin Suedmeyer and Doug Cary who are now playing basketball in college.

Jackson returns three players with considerable varsity experience, led by 5-foot-10 senior Tory Meyr, a solid all-around athlete who is the Indians' only full-time starter back from last season."He's a good athlete and a solid all-around player," said Burk of Meyr, who starred for the highly successful Jackson football team this fall.

Also back after being key contributors last year are 6-5 senior John Oehl and 6-foot senior Levi Bollinger."John came on the second half of last season and did well," Burk said. "Levi played a lot as a sophomore but he suffered a broken leg last year and he still played, but he wasn't 100 percent. He seems to be 100 percent now." Three other seniors saw limited varsity action last season but will be counted on this year: 6-4 Josh Koehler, 6-2 Jeremy Hager and 5-9 Lucas McCulley.

The only two juniors on the team are 6-1 Brad Hilbert and 6-2 Matt Ferrell, who both played JV last season, with Hilbert being one of the JV squad's leading scorers.

Burk will also be looking for contributions from two sophomores, 5-11 Lance Bollinger and 6-foot Nathan Brown. Bollinger played on the JV last year while Brown was on the freshmen team.

Assessing his squad, Burk said, "I think our strengths will be our quickness and our guard play. My biggest concern is can we defend people inside and can we rebound. Those are the two things that seem to be big question marks."Jackson opens the season this week in the Farmington Tournament, where the Indians are seeded third.