By Chris Parker
Stockton boys basketball has a new head coach in Michael Draper taking over this season. He comes to Stockton after two years as head coach at Keytesville High School where he went 33-14 in two years.
“The first thing that stood out to me is how beautiful of a community Stockton is. We have a beautiful gym inside an excellent high school facility, and when you put that together with a strong athletic tradition in Stockton, I saw this as a job that would be a very good fit for me,” Draper said.
He inherits a program that failed to win 10 games for the first time since 2013 last season. The Tigers finished 9-17 overall. They graduated Drew Wheeler who is the school’s all-time leading scorer from that team.
Sophomore Jay Baxter is the lone returning player who earned all-conference honors last season. He was named honorable mention all-conference after scoring 8.5 points per game to go with 7.7 rebounds and 2 assists.
“Jay is just an all-around good basketball player,” Draper said. “I am expecting Jay to have a big year for us this year. For a guy to earn all-conference honors as a freshman is tough in a conference like ours. That just speaks volumes to the level of player that Jay Baxter is. Jay is an extremely talented individual to go with an outstanding work ethic and I am very excited to see what he does with his remaining three years at Stockton.”
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Senior Tate Wheeler and DJ Bays return for their final seasons. Wheeler averaged 5.4 points 4.1 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game last year.
“Tate is our point guard and he can flat out get up and down the floor. He is very athletic and I’m looking forward to a great senior season from him,” Drape said. “DJ is an incredibly hard worker and will be a solid player for us this year. I’m proud of how hard he has worked and am excited for him as he goes into his senior season.”
Junior Layne Colvin averaged 7.1 points and 2.7 rebounds per game last year.
“Layne is a very driven individual to go with a lot of athletic ability and talent, and I’m expecting very big things from him these next two years,” Draper said.
Sophomore guard Braden Postlewait will help stretch defenses with his shooting.
Senior forward Hayden Mann and sophomore guard Colby Adams will be two newcomers to watch.
Stockton opens the season on Nov. 24 at Warsaw.
“We want to get as much out of this team as we possibly can. Whatever this team has in store as far as the top of the peak goes, we want to get to that peak,” Drape said. “We don’t want to leave any potential growth untapped. We want every ounce of growth tapped into and reach what we can reach.”
