Montgomery County boys basketball coach Scott Kroeger is glad to have his large senior class back for another year this winter.

Logan Hutcheson, Keenan James, Ty Leu, Ethan Rakers and Drake Smith make up the Wildcats’ senior class. All of them have played with the MCHS boys basketball program since they were freshmen.

“I know they’re small, but they’ll get after it,” Kroeger said. “They’re aggressive basketball players. They rebound super hard.”

This year, the seniors will look to help the Wildcats finish with their third consecutive winning season. A year ago, MCHS won 20 games and captured Eastern Missouri Conference and district championships.

Kroeger said he’s counting on Rakers, a point guard, to provide leadership for the Wildcats.

“I am returning a point guard who started a lot of basketball games in a row for me,” Kroeger said. “He played as a freshman. He’s a guy who really tries to be a leader. He’s got to have guys who are going to row the boat with him. He’s going to push that thing down the stream instead of having it going against him. He works his tail off.”

Smith, who was named on the all-district and all-conference teams in the 2020-21 season, is currently out due to an injury he suffered during football season.

“Not having Drake Smith to start the year is going to hurt us a little bit in the experience department,” Kroeger said. “But we’ve got plenty of guys to supplement that, especially leadership wise, if they choose to do that. They have to choose to be leadership guys.”

Leu earned all-conference honors in basketball for the first time last year. Hutcheson is back after suffering a season-ending wrist injury in a game against Wellsville-Middletown in mid-season. James finished in double figures in several games last year, including a 13-point effort against Hallsville in the Class 4, District 7 championship game.

The Wildcats have four juniors, three of them — Alex Hartman, Travis Hill and Zak Rodgers — had varsity time last year.

Freshman Clayton Parker also will see some time on the varsity. Parker has two older brothers, Collin and Carson, who played with the MCHS program and are currently playing basketball at Columbia College.

“He’s worked very hard to be the shooter, the passer and dribbler that he is,” Kroeger said. “But he has to use it. It does no good if you work on that stuff and you don’t use it. I’m confident that he’ll do that.”

The Wildcats began their season on Nov. 23 with a 60-34 loss to Winfield on the road. They will play Bowling Green at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 in a first-round game of the Montgomery County Invitational at Ballew & Snell Court.

MCHS lost three players to graduation – Collin Parker, Ke’Lyjah Carter and Tyler Finke. Parker earned all-conference, all-state and all-district honors last year.