New coach hopes to keep Marion at the top

By Jeff DahnThe Gazette jeff.dahn@gazettecommunications.comThe first two weeks of the Mike Manderscheid era at Marion High School have brought results most would have expected and appreciated.Manderscheid took over the Marion boys' basketball program this year after spending the previous nine years as former coach Corby Laube's sophomore coach and top varsity assistant. The Indians won the last three Wamac Conference championships and are expected to compete for a West Division title this year in the expanded Wamac.Marion stands 3-2 two weeks in, with its three wins against Wamac counterparts and its two losses to Class 4A top-10 ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Jefferson. The wins over conference opponents DeWitt Central, Western Dubuque and Independence were by 12, 14 and 10 points. The losses to Kennedy and Jefferson were by 12 and 16 points.Manderscheid liked putting his relatively inexperienced team up against the 4A stalwarts."Those games are going to make us tougher, we hope, in the end," he said. "I wish I had one late in the season, too, to help push us, but playing these games are a good evaluation for us. These 4A teams are going to find some weaknesses and they're going to expose them, maybe, a little easier than a Wamac East or West team."All-state senior guard Amry Shelby (5-foot-11) is the only returning starter from last year's 19-4 team that lost to eventual state champion Dubuque Wahlert in a substate final. He's a good one, and is averaging 23.0 points through the Indians' first five games. He recently signed to play college basketball at Division II Wayne (Neb.) State."It's his quickness and his innate ability to do some things. He has that ability to react without even thinking on drives and stuff like that," Manderscheid said of Shelby. "That jump shot from about 15 feet is just dangerous. When he gets that going, that gets the rest of us going. That's probably his biggest strength, that 15-foot jumper."Seniors Levi Lynott, Matt Barnd and Riley Odean received valuable playing time a year ago, and sophomore guard Kasey Semler has moved into the starting lineup.Marion resides in the Wamac West Division, which top-to-bottom might be a notch below the East. The East harbors Solon, DeWitt Central, Dyersville Beckman, West Delaware and Mount Vernon, to name a few, and the Indians won't play powerhouse Solon this season.Manderscheid thinks his team can compete with anyone, including a substate tournament field in which Marion should be the favorite to emerge with its first state tournament berth since 1952.In Saturday's loss to Jefferson, the Indians fell behind in the second half and went away from a dribble-penetration mentality that was successful in building an 18-11 first-quarter lead and started launching 3-pointers. They finished just 3 of 27 from behind the arc, 2 of 14 in the fourth quarter.There is plenty of time work to out the kinks."Our kids are adjusting to some of the things we're trying to do defensively, and it gets better every day at that," Manderscheid said. "We're still trying to find ourselves a little bit and we're still trying to work on getting a little bit of that game experience."First big MVC showdownClass 4A defending state champion Iowa City High (3-0) will be at Cedar Rapids Kennedy (4-0) tonight for the season's first Mississippi Valley Conference contest involving top-10 ranked teams.City High and Kennedy are two of only four remaining unbeatens in the MVC - Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Jefferson are the others - and because of lack of experience, Kennedy's unblemished start might be the most surprising.Senior guard Jake Hughes is the Cougars' only returning starter from last year's state fourth-place team, and Coach Bob Fontana has been relying heavily on seniors Alex Coleman and Jake Heffernen, junior Max Martino and sophomores Kyle Lamaak and Austin Christensen, while going to the bench early and often."Coach is trying to develop our depth early on in the season," Hughes said. "Early on, he said he's going to see who can play."City High and first-year coach Adam Loria are playing without all-state post Malcolm Moore, who won't be eligible until January.Contact the writer: (319) 368-8841 or jeff.dahn@gazcomm.com