After going further in football this year, Van-Far would like to do the same in basketball.

The Indians’ football season came to an end in the district semifinals, which gave boys basketball head coach Pat Connaway his full roster about a week before the start of the season. On the court, Van-Far is coming off a better year with a 17-11 record, but the season ended in the district semifinals.

Connaway said Van-Far hopes to be playing for a district title this year and perhaps beyond since most of last year’s roster is back. The Indians graduated senior all-Eastern Missouri Conference player Cody Smith but will still have their other all-conference player and all-district player of the year Nikos Connaway. Junior Carson Huff joins the team after transferring from Wellsville-Middletown, and while he won’t have the ball in his hands as much, Pat Connaway said Van-Far will put him in good positions to score.

“Carson has significant varsity experience already, but he just has to get our system down,” Connaway said. “My senior group – like Gage (Gibson) and Nikos – have started since their freshman year, (junior) Carter (Jennings) has started since he was a sophomore and (senior) Brayden Lay has started off and on so these kids have a ton of experience. Chemistry and things like that, we should have a lot of hiccups once we knock the rust off.”

The rust exists every year as kids progressively play into game shape and become accustomed to playing together again, Connaway said, but Van-Far might have more challenges beginning this season pertaining to conditioning. During football season, the Indians stayed active and will need to adjust to a different game.

“The average play in football lasts four to five seconds, and of course, basketball, you can go two minutes at a time without the whistle blowing,” Connaway said. “It’s a different kind of conditioning. We’ll get there, but it will just take a little while.”

Connaway said every team wants to be playing its best basketball in February and believes the Indians could start clicking after Christmas. He said Kasen Christian was one injury that carried over from football that should be back around that time, Huff should be better adjusted to the system and the whole Van-Far roster should be starting to figure things out then.

Whenever Van-Far starts playing to its potential, Connaway said he has a team with a ton of energy that runs up and down the floor and plays suffocating defense. He said championships are won with great defense – allowing an opposing average under 50 points – and that is what Van-Far did last year at 48.6 points per game and during its 2018 state championship year at 49.4 points per game.

“We should be pretty solid,” Connaway said. “We’ve been harping on that with some of these kids for four years. You’re going to have off-nights shooting. You can’t have an off-night shooting, give 65 points and expect to win.”

The Indians averaged 8.5 steals per game and had 12 games with double-digit steals. Nikos Connaway led the way with 3.2 steals per game and also led the way with 19.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

“It all starts with Nikos,” Connaway said. “He’s had three outstanding years and continues to get better. We’re asking him for even more – be more of that well-rounded player and more of that leader to make everyone else better.”

Connaway has plenty of help starting with his best friend Gage Gibson, who led Van-Far with 41 made 3-pointers last season. Gibson is one of four returning Indians to average at least six points a game with the others being Connaway, Jennings and sophomore Pacey Reading and “gets better every year from kindergarten on” with added skills of shooting off the dribble and driving to the rim.

Jennings is a 6-foot-4 post player that can knock down perimeter shots, having 12 made 3-pointers last year, and finished with 5.6 rebounds per game. Reading was one shy of Gibson’s 3-pointer total, can help “stretch the defense” and is noticeably stronger because of football. Sophomore Evan Utterback is a post player Van-Far can bring off the bench and also brings much strength from the football field, sophomore Gaven Gaston is a big guard that impressed Pat Connaway during the jamboree last week, and Lay has athleticism off the bench and is back off knee surgery.

Connaway really likes his group this season and believes they can have bigger accomplishments. During the regular season, he would like to see the Indians win more in tournaments, including the Centralia Tournament after competing in previous years but going 0-4. More importantly, the Indians believe they should improve the 6-4 conference record from a year ago and could since they lost three of those games by one or two possessions.

“We want to be able to compete with the Montgomery’s in our conference and be one of the top schools in our conference,” Connaway said. “A district title is something we want to capture.”