By BUTCH HARMON
Thanks to a strong core of seniors, the Mt. Pleasant boys basketball team is off to a good start this season and has its sights set on some big goals.
Anchored by senior post player Jaleel Hogan, the Oilers have won seven of their first nine games this season. Among the wins was a 69-60 win against Saginaw Arthur Hill. Mt. Pleasant’s only losses have come against top-ten ranked team Saginaw (44-38) and against Holland (66-41).
“We’ve had our ups and downs this year,” coach Dan Schell said. “We’ve had some good wins, and we lost a tough one to Saginaw that we should’ve won, but overall I think we are doing all right.”
Leading the way for Mt. Pleasant has been Hogan, a University of Detroit Mercy recruit, who is putting up impressive numbers in points and rebounds.
“Jaleel has done a nice job, and he’s just getting better and better,” Schell said. “He’s a lot stronger this year. He struggled with a knee injury early in the season, but he’s starting to get in a lot better shape now. He is averaging 18 or 19 points per game and 16 or 17 rebounds per game. Once he gets one hundred percent, he is a 20/20 kid.”
With his size and strength, Hogan can dominate games. “Jaleel is obviously a great player,” Schell continued. “He is very gifted at 6’6″ and 250 pounds, and you don’t see that very often in high school, especially when you put that together with his tremendous leaping ability. He also has really soft hands and good instincts. You can’t teach that ability. He’s great on the boards, and he has a good, soft touch to 16-17-18 feet. He has a lot of room for growth in his game, and in college is when you will really see him begin to reach his full potential.”
While Hogan can dominate games, the Oilers are far from a one-man team. “We are seven, eight players deep, and we can run pretty well,” Schell said. “We are also pretty athletic. Obviously, we have some outstanding players like Jaleel, but we have some other kids, as well, who are good players.”
Senior point guard Anton Cotton gives the Oilers a potent scoring option in the backcourt. “Anton is a pretty exciting guard,” Schell said. “He is averaging 13-14 points per game. He shoots the ball very well.”
The Oilers have also received strong contributions from senior guard/forward T.J. Johnson, senior guard Tim Wilson, senior Aaron Leasher, and sophomore Kalebb Perry.
“Aaron is one of our best players,” Schell said. “He has really been coming on the last two or three games. T.J. is another kid that I can’t say enough about. He has improved so much since the off-season. Tim is a senior guard who is our best on-ball defender. Kalebb is only a sophomore, and he is really more of a defensive player right now, but he has really stepped up for us.”
Mt. Pleasant’s improvement this year can be traced to hard work put in by the players over the summer.
“The guys never stopped working from the end of last season,” Schell said. “They were either in the weight room or putting up shots or playing in the off-season.”
Off-season AAU basketball provided other benefits, as well. Last year Hogan, Cotton, and Johnson all transferred into the district from Buena Vista. The transfers came about as a result of the trio playing with Mt. Pleasant players during the spring and summer AAU season.
“Last year, it was a little more difficult because Jaleel, Anton, and T.J. became eligible at midseason,” Schell said. “This year, they’ve been with us all through the off-season, so things have went very, very smooth. The kids knew each other from AAU ball, and they spent a lot of time with Aaron Leasher at his place. The kids actually knew each other way before I did, so it was a smooth transition.”
With one month of the regular season and the tournament remaining, the Oilers are looking for a successful ending.
“I don’t think we’ve played as well as we can play by any stretch,” Schell said. “We won’t know how good they can be until they show it, and maybe that will not happen. We have a very, very tough district with Midland and Dow. If we make it out of that, we will host regionals with Saginaw or Arthur Hill. That is going to be a real tough regional.”