By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Cort Hardy had targeted a place like Seneca to begin his head coaching career and now he’s getting the chance.
The longtime Webb City assistant takes over an Indians program that went 9-18 last year and won just four games two years ago. Hardy said it’s a place where he can have success and build a future.
“I knew the town has a lot of tradition, a lot of pride and support for their kids and their sports teams,” he said. “I knew they had some talent, some guys who had played a lot of basketball and they return everybody.”
Hardy joined Jason Horn’s staff at Neosho for the 2015-16 season and then followed Horn to Webb City in 2016. He spent five years coaching there with one year as an assistant to Chris Myers at Thomas Jefferson mixed in while student teaching.
Seneca returns 100 percent of its scoring from last season and has three seniors on the roster who are all returning starters in Cooper Long, Conner Ackerson and Hayden Gaines. Long (6-foot-1) earned honorable mention honors in the Big 8 West after averaging 13.5 points and 5.5 rebounds as a junior and will play the 3 or 4 spot. Ackerson (6-2) averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds as a forward and Gaines (5-10) averaged 2.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals as a shooting guard.
The Indians have a talented junior class, as well, with several players who saw varsity time as sophomores and even freshmen. Forward Blake Hurn (6-2) averaged 4.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and more than a steal per game while starting. Guard Gavyn Hoover (6-1) averaged 7.5 points and four rebounds while adding two assists and a steal per game while starting off and on. Morgan Vaughn (6-1), in limited action, averaged three points and three rebounds after returning from an injury and has a chance to start this year as a small forward. And Ethan Altic (6-1) averaged 4.9 points, 1.9 rebounds and a steal per game as a shooting guard/small forward.
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“They are going to be really good players for us,” Hardy said. “Those guys play a lot of basketball and they’re just good athletes.”
Sophomore point guard Zane Grotjohn (5-11) appeared in all 27 games as a freshman and averaged 4.6 points and a rebound. Junior shooting guard Jackson Marrs (5-9) saw action in 17 games and averaged 2.6 rebounds. Seneca has also added 6-0 sophomore Jace Shulte, who moved from Webb City.
“We got a good feel for each other this summer,” Hardy said. “I think it’s going to be a team that plays really fast. They like to get up and down, like to get to the basket and speed the game up on people. It’s going to be a deep team. We could play 10 guys easily. I think you’ll see us push the pace and speed some people up and get after it on defense.”
That fast-paced style fits Hardy’s coaching style perfectly, he said, after helping Webb City use its athletic ability to push the pace.
“I think the kids really like playing like that and that’s how I want us to play,” he said. “If we get that opportunity we’re going to try and run it up and down the floor and get as many possessions as we can get.”
The Indians open the season at Lockwood in the 60th Annual Dennis Cornish Classic and then host the Seneca Invitational a week later. They close out December with games against Gravette (Ark.), Carl Junction, Neosho and Crane, and later on travel to Miami (Okla.), the Frontenac (Kan.) tournament and also host Wyandotte (Okla.). They’ll travel to Forsyth and Clever in February.
“It’s a challenging schedule for us,” Hardy said. “When we look at it there’s not one game on there we can just take a night off.”
Seneca will host a jamboree on Nov. 22 with Nevada and Cassville.
