EATON — The Eaton boys’ basketball team will be led by an experienced, athletic and hard-working group of seniors. The Eagles will look to bounce back from a tough season in 2015-16 – and will do so under new head coach Bob Madden.
Madden brings over 30 years of coaching experience at various levels to the Eagles, according to the Eaton sports website, most recently serving as the boys’ varsity assistant coach for Bellbrook High School during the 2015-16 season.
Prior to serving as an Assistant Coach at Bellbrook, Coach Madden was the Head Coach at the Miami Valley School in Dayton for seven seasons from 1998 until 2005. Bob Madden also held the positions of Athletic Director, Dean of Students, PE Teacher and Math Teacher during his tenure at MVS.
Madden, who is the Eagles’ third coach in three years, comes in with modest expectations as he begins to build the program. “I think they will be competitive this year because of their hard work ethic,” he said.
Eaton will count on seniors Lew Bowser, Trevor Pittman, Donnie Nicodemus, and Danny Howard to provide leadership and productivity. The Eagles have three starters back from last season in Nicodemus, Howard, and Pittman — and Bowser played significant minutes as well.
Pittman was the Eagles’ leading scorer and Howard the leading rebounder last year. Pittman’s 17.5 point per game average was second-best in the SWBL last season – behind Madison’s Austin Philpot (statisics provided by SWBL Sports). Howard averaged 8.1 rebounds per game, fourth overall in league play.l
The loss of sophomore Jason Sneed who transferred to Centerville will hurt the Eagles in the beginning of the season, according to coach Bob Madden.
Rounding out the varsity/junior varsity roster are: Jack Bieker and Josh Atkins, seniors; Brandon Hunt, Grant Sullender, Aaron Tolliver, Jordan Lewis and Brandon Miller, juniors; Owen Baumann, Jack Stewart, Isaac Manning, Nathan Gard and James Howard, sophomores.
The Eagles finished 6-17 overall last year, 3-9 in the Southwestern Buckeye League. The SWBL top spots went to Oakwood and Franklin, both finishing the season at 9-3 in the SWBL.
The Eagles open the season at Twin Valley South’s Tip-Off Tournament on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 2-3. They will stay with Preble County rivals on the following Tuesday, hosting Preble Shawnee and then open SWBL play on Friday against Bellbrook.
