Waite takes on the mantra, ‘Big Guard University’

Waite boys basketball did not play a regular season game this year until January 18. After that the Indians had to put everything together on the fly, but they made it work.

That is because the Indians had an unusual problem. We often hear of teams lacking height and solid post players, but Waite’s team was nearly all post players. The Indians were lacking experienced backcourt players.

“We played the whole season with all post players. We didn’t have any guards — we just had all post guys,” said coach Darren White-Owens. “But they played tough.”

That means some of the post players had to learn to handle the ball in the backcourt. The Indians were led by 6-foot-3 senior guard/forward Cameron Stuck, who averaged 11.5 points, seven rebounds, two steals and one block on his way to earning first team All-Toledo City League and third team Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press.

“Cam literally led us in every statistical category, so he was pretty much the heart of the team. So, we went where he went,” White-Owens said.

“Cam is a real special kid,” White-Owens continued. “(Senior guard) Alex Rodriguez III was our only returning natural guard, and everybody else we just had to kind of throw them in the fire and go on the fly. 

“Once they started figuring it out, we just had to feed them with a pass, and once they started getting better, games started getting closer. This is the first time I have ever witnessed anything like that. Our mantra for the season was ‘Big Guard University’— that is what they called us all year.” 

Stuck had his best game against Rogers with 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

“He really crept up on the triple-double and he had it tough,” White-Owens said. “He was our starting center last year, and us with the virtual learning we lost a lot of players because they were not doing school, so he started point guard for us this year, so his transition was the toughest.”

The Indians, who finished 3-10 overall and 3-7 in the City, also got help from three-sport athlete Nikolas Heslet, who averaged 11.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in getting honorable mention All-Press and second team All-City.

“Nikolas was our primary shooter and defender on a lot of the tougher competition in the City this year,” White-Owens said. “He shut down a lot of the better players on the wing. He does everything. He is tough as nails.”

Heslet, the City League Player of the Year in football and a second year varsity basketball starter, began demonstrating his impact right out of the gate, scoring 25 points with eight rebounds in the 61-57 season opening loss to Woodward. Heslet fouled out at the end of the game, and the Polar Bears won on a last second shot.

“We lost two games at the buzzer, and in one of them Nikolas Heslet fouled out, and in the other, our last game of the season against Bowsher that put us out of the final four, we lost (59-56 in overtime) on a buzzer-beater three,” White-Owens said. “We played really tough. We beat Bowsher (60-57) and Rogers (63-54) for the first time in years.”

Along with Stuck, Heslet and Rodriguez, Waite also loses to graduation forward Larry Mitchell, guard Adrien Brown, forward Matthew Lamonds and forward/center Markeith Woodmore. Rodriguez, Lamonds and Heslet were HM All-Press and Rodriguez and Lamonds were HM All-City.

“We are going to have to start from scratch next year because we are graduating nine guys. Right now, we are going in blind and trying to figure it out as we go,” White-Owens said. “In a couple weeks, we are going to get summer going so we can get those guys feet wet all summer. We have got to get a lot of basketball played.”

Plus, the pandemic not only pushed back the Waite varsity team’s opening day until well after the holidays, but junior high basketball in Toledo also got started a few weeks back.

“We actually just got junior high sports back, so our eighth grade started (a few weeks ago),” White-Owens said. “I actually just got a job inside of Waite, so I’ll be able to talk to kids and stay on them all year round, keep them eligible and everything and make sure that everybody does what they need to.”