Indian Valley boys basketball blends winners, depth in new season

When the culture of winning at Indian Valley, it’s no surprise the school’s boys basketball team is a pretty solid unit in its own right. Early returns are few but suggest that will continue to be the case this year.

More than half of the Braves’ football roster competed at the highest levels this fall. Three members of the state final four football team are rotation players and three members of the state-qualifying golf team will see playing time. 

Coach Ty Miller can see a lot of things as he glances up and down his roster. Chief among those things is winners. Indian Valley has a lot of them. 

“I think this experience in other sports is beneficial for their success in basketball,” Miller said.

What Miller won’t see are three letter-winners who graduated from the 2024-25 team that finished a strong 21-5, finished second in the Inter-Valley Conference South Division and was Division IV East District runner-up. 

They have plenty back from that group. Among them, and on the roster, period, is but one senior. That would be 6-foot Deagan Beaber, also a golf standout at IV. He leads a returning group that includes 5-11 junior Ryker Williams, quarterback on the Braves’ football team, 6-2 junior Colts James, another football player; 6-0 junior Cam Enama, another golfer; and 5-10 Kylan McDonald.

“We have a good group of returning lettermen, despite having only one senior,” Miller said. Our challenge is going to be developing depth from the new players that lack experience. As always, our ability to guard will be what determines how much success we have. Our goal is simple: play up to our standards every day.” 

Looking to make their way into the rotation this year 

Are 6-2 junior Brogen Wilson, another solid football player; and 5-11 sophomore Hayden Beaber, who played in the state tournament during golf season. 

Others are 6-1 junior Zane Colvin, 6-1 junior Caleb Shamp, and 6-foot sophomores Jaiden Stine and Landen Roth. 

The Braves were off to a 2-0 start, with the season starting out slowly from a schedule standpoint. With a handful of football players coming off what was a long football season, that made sense.

The schedule will catch up quickly. The Braves were scheduled to play five times over the last 12 days of December, a time when many teams are slowing down or attending holiday events. 

Helping things out at least a bit was the early schedule, not just in terms of its lightness in number of games, but who those games were against. The Braves’ first three games – they were to play Garaway Dec. 19, after deadline for this edition – were against teams that were off to a combined 1-13 start. 

It will get tougher, though, so Miller will be looking for his team to maintain standards, which he sets high. The Braves will need to do that as they develop depth and look to battle an overall lack of size.

Miller said the Braves will do well if it they “play up to our standards on a daily basis –offensively, defensively, and from an effort standpoint.