Boys basketball: Vaughan, transfers hoping to guide backcourt positions for Oswego East

Updated: November 15, 2011 7:22PM

After now graduated Oswego East point guard Wesley Brooks torched rival Oswego for 20 points last year, Panthers coach Kevin Schnable uttered the line, “He is graduating isn’t he? Goodbye, good luck.”

And now has come the time when Wolves coach Jason Buckley must plug in someone new to a position Brooks played so well for the last two years.

“Wes was a quiet leader out there,” Buckley said. “You could kind of filter everything through him. If we needed to have words with the team, we knew we could go right at Wes and say ‘Hey, you need to get your act together’ and he took that knowing it was directed at the entire team.”

Junior C.J. Vaughan will step into the role this season and get help at the guard position from two transfers — Kenny Battle Jr., returning after a year at West Aurora, and Nick Marema, coming over from Aurora Christian.

“We’re dare I say maybe a little more talented this year,” Buckley said. “I think we got more guys that can put the ball in the hole since two years ago. But that said, we’re still relatively new together so it’s kind of an odd mix in that regard. They have great chemistry, it’s just a matter of getting everyone on the floor and we haven’t had that so far.”

Health has been an issue and senior forward Jermaine Campbell will be getting word soon how serious his knee injury is.

“It’s been a lot of bumps and bruises, some of them more serious,” Buckley said. “Jermaine Campbell has a meniscus issue and we’re hoping for the best. That just alters things. We have other guys to fill in, but it feels like everyone has something.”

Buckley said around eight days of practice already have been missed by players sitting out for various injuries, which has been hard to create a good rhythm. As it stands now, forwards Kalmon Stokes and Jimmy Bitner will round out the starting lineup, which hopes to use its talent to compete with Oswego and Plainfield South for a Southwest Prairie Conference title.

“There’s not a game on our schedule I don’t think we can win, but there’s also not a game on there I think we’ll win by 40 either,” Buckley said. “We’re going to have to grind it out.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.