After five players graduated and two players transferred to other schools, the Wellsville-Middletown boys basketball team’s chances of playing in the 2023-24 season was in jeopardy during the offseason.

“We didn’t think we were going to have a team,” W-M coach Steve Lasman said.

But after Lasman recruited four new players, the Tigers now have a full team and will look to improve on last year’s 9-16 record.

“We’re very inexperienced because four of our kids never put a high school uniform on,” Lasman said. “When you’re in a Class 1 small school, you will have these years. It’s just one of those things. We’re not North Callaway, Bowling Green or Montgomery County with 400-500 students.”

Juniors Cooper Henderson and Gage Marshall are the only returning players from last year’s team. They were also members of the 2021-22 team that finished fourth in the Class 1 state tournament.

Juniors Jonah Slovensky and Brennan Cash and freshmen Gage Nichols and Shane Joles round out the W-M roster. Slovensky and Cash are playing basketball at the high school level for the first time. Nichols and Joles played with the W-M Junior High squad last winter.

“These are kids who want to play,” Lasman said. “I love them. They’re working their butts off in practice. They play hard. That’s all you can ask.”

The short-handed Tigers started their ‘23-24 season on Nov. 21 with a 55-37 loss to Community R-6 at home. After scoring just eight points at halftime, W-M outscored the Trojans 29-24 in the second half.

“We’re going to get better,” said Lasman, who is back for his seventh season as coach. “I thought we got better as the game went on. The big problem we’re going to have right now is ball handling because of lack of size and lack of experience. I’m not worried about our defense. I’m worried about getting into an offense. When you have inexperience with small size, it’s hard, especially with the schedule we play. We don’t play a 1A schedule.”

All six players scored at least one point against Community. Marshall scored 12 points to lead the Tigers, his second double-digit performance of his high school basketball career. Henderson finished with 11 points, followed by Slovensky with seven, Joles with four, Cash with two and Nichols with one.

“Our kids played hard,” Lasman said. “Our kids never quit. I was proud of them.”

John Slovensky is the Tigers’ new assistant coach this winter.
The Tigers lost Dylan Alsop, CJ Curd, Jacob Mandrell, Lucas Moore and Logan Pursifull to graduation. Two other players, Carson Huff and Hunter Bickell, transferred to Van-Far and Mexico, respectively.

Last year, W-M finished with its first losing record since the 2018-19 season after losing the final six games of the year. The Tigers also had just one victory in Eastern Missouri Conference play.

The Tigers’ next home game will be on Dec. 5 against Chamois.