2008 Woodie Awards
Young Spartans must grow up fast
Joseph Murphy
Issue date: 11/11/08 Section: Sports
It's Tuesday November 5, 2008, election night, and the specter of change looms over the UNCG Men's Basketball team's practice. But it's not whether Obama will turn North Carolina blue, or whether Kay Hagan will unseat Elizabeth Dole that Coach Mike Dement and his Spartans are concerned with at the moment. Rather the prospect of facing a new season without Kyle Hines-the best player in school history-who graduated last May and is now playing professionally in Italy.
This season's edition of the Spartans practices under the shadow of Hines retired #42 jersey in the rafters, a shadow from which the Spartans must emerge if they hope to challenge for SoCon supremacy once again this season.
It's not just Hines who the Spartans must replace, but also the scoring and outside marksmanship of guard Kevin Oleksiak, and the leadership and ball handling of point guard Dwayne Johnson, who along with Hines formed the backbone and senior leadership of last year's team.
This season's senior-less Spartans will need Ben Stywall, Mikko Koivisto, and Kendall Toney-all juniors who played significant minutes last season-to step up and provide leadership.
"It's really important that the junior class be leaders as juniors," said Coach Dement. "They've played a lot of minutes so they need to be vocal and direct to the young guys and each other."
Stywall recognizes that he and his fellow juniors must make the shift from underclassmen last season to veterans and leaders this season.
"Coach has been stressing that we need to step up and be those leaders that Kevin, Kyle, and Dwayne were," said Stywall. "So it's new to us, but all of us are trying to step into the role (of leaders) and lead by example as much as possible to help the young guys come along."
Without any seniors, Coach Dement and his staff took a unique approach to selecting captains. They made players who wanted to be captains fill out an application and give a presentation to their teammates and coaches about why they deserved the role. The players and coaches all voted afterwards and Stywall, Koivisto, and sophomore Darius Sellers were selected.
This season's edition of the Spartans practices under the shadow of Hines retired #42 jersey in the rafters, a shadow from which the Spartans must emerge if they hope to challenge for SoCon supremacy once again this season.
It's not just Hines who the Spartans must replace, but also the scoring and outside marksmanship of guard Kevin Oleksiak, and the leadership and ball handling of point guard Dwayne Johnson, who along with Hines formed the backbone and senior leadership of last year's team.
This season's senior-less Spartans will need Ben Stywall, Mikko Koivisto, and Kendall Toney-all juniors who played significant minutes last season-to step up and provide leadership.
"It's really important that the junior class be leaders as juniors," said Coach Dement. "They've played a lot of minutes so they need to be vocal and direct to the young guys and each other."
Stywall recognizes that he and his fellow juniors must make the shift from underclassmen last season to veterans and leaders this season.
"Coach has been stressing that we need to step up and be those leaders that Kevin, Kyle, and Dwayne were," said Stywall. "So it's new to us, but all of us are trying to step into the role (of leaders) and lead by example as much as possible to help the young guys come along."
Without any seniors, Coach Dement and his staff took a unique approach to selecting captains. They made players who wanted to be captains fill out an application and give a presentation to their teammates and coaches about why they deserved the role. The players and coaches all voted afterwards and Stywall, Koivisto, and sophomore Darius Sellers were selected.
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