By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – For some people, following a legendary coach would be tough shoes to fill, but Levi Hatcher embraces the role of picking up where 13-year Spring Garden boys basketball coach Ricky Austin left off.
Hatcher took over for Austin at the end of last season. A 2002 graduate of Trion, Ga., where he played basketball and ran cross country, Hatcher also attended Shorter University on a basketball scholarship and played there from 2002-06. He is married to former Lady Panther basketball player Lauren Hudson.
“It’s a role I welcome,” Hatcher said. “Your choices are to go somewhere where there aren’t high expectations or coach where there are. I’ll take the ones with the high expectations any day of the week.
“If you’re setting the bar low from the get-go, you’re not really having to push yourself to reach your goals. Our goals are going to be set high enough to where we’re not going to reach them just by stepping on the court. We’re going to have to work hard. If we’re going to win a Friday night game, we’re going to win Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practice before we get there. That’s my expectations going into every game, every practice. The bar is set high, but I think our guys can reach that.
“We just want to carry on the tradition that’s been set before us. That’s one thing I feel coming in after someone like Coach Rat. I’ve heard ‘You’ve got the biggest shoes to fill’ and this and that, but I don’t feel the pressure from that. It’s true, but by the same token, when you have a coach like that who’s instilled a culture into these guys who have bought in, you just want to carry on the tradition because it’s a good tradition to have.”
It’s not as if Hatcher is totally new to the Panthers. He was an assistant with the team last year, so many of the current players already know what to expect.
“It’s been exciting,” senior forward Cam Welsh said. “His enthusiasm and his intensity, we see that every day. We want to match it. He was excited to join us last year and I think that’s definitely helped. We know what to expect now with him being on board last year.”
Welsh is one of four seniors the Panthers have on their roster this season. The other three are Jon Marq Rogers, Braxton Haney and D’Angelo Wright.
Junior Chapel Pope returns as the Panther point guard. The Panthers also have another junior guard in Cole Bailey.
Sophomore twin brothers John and Jacob Welsh return inside the post, as does sophomores Connor Bates. Sophomore Noah Barber adds depth at guard.
“We lost some players last year, some key offensive players, but we’ve got some coming back. I’m not worried about that,” Hatcher said. “We’ve got Chapel, Connor Bates, a couple of guards coming back whose motors are turned high all the time. Sometimes (at practice) it’s ‘Let’s dial it back a little bit’, but you love their intensity and the effort they give.
“We knew we were losing Cooper (Austin) and Chaz (Pope), some of our ball handlers. Chapel will probably handle the duties with the ball the most, but I’ve got Cole who will back him up and can handle it. Noah Barber made huge steps this summer. I thought he was probably the most improved from the end of last year to this year.
“John and Jake are our post presence down low. Jon Marq is a good shooter and will hustle hard. Last year he played with the JV group. The same with Braxton. I felt that was one of the best things for them. They had to learn how to go from being a passive-type player to feeling like ‘I’ve got to be aggressive. I’m one of the focal points.’ Cam brings toughness and grit. I expanded his range a little bit last year. He’s one who’s always going to stick his nose in there, so coming in last year really helped me start forming connections that would benefit us this year and for future years.”
Hatcher said he expects the Panthers to set the tone against their opponents on defense first.
“To me, if you go out there and kind of make a team feel suffocated, or you put them in a passive position, you can kind of get in their heads a little bit,” he said. “I like that feeling, seeing other teams kind of back away a little bit because you took it to them first.”
After spending the past two seasons in Class 2A, the Panthers make the move back down to 1A. They compete in Area 12 along with Cedar Bluff, Gaylesville, Coosa Christian and Jacksonville Christian. They open the season at home on Tuesday against Faith Christian.
“I like the intensity we brought this summer. I feel like we can compete with any of them,” Hatcher said. “Depending on who we play, who their personnel are, things like that, some games we’ll play fast. I think we’ve got a lot of size this year, so if we have a mismatch in size, we’ll play to that strength. Defensively I plan on mixing it up, getting in people’s space and creating chaos. I want us to be hard-nosed. We’re going to do anything we can to get after it.”