Editor's note: Each weekday, digitalburg.com will look at a different girls or boys basketball program in Johnson County. Coming Wednesday: Knob Noster boys.

CHILHOWEE, Mo. -- Chilhowee boys basketball coach Jeff Mitchell hopes to see his team take a step forward this season, starting with the Indians’ opener Dec. 1 vs. Wentworth Academy.

“I’d like to see us start on a winning note. That’s something that we haven’t done yet,” said Mitchell, who is in his third year as head coach. “And I’d like to see us get the ball up and down the floor a little bit.”

Hopefully small steps can lead to strong play at the end of the season for the Indians this time around. Last year’s youthful bunch, which featured only one senior, appeared to wear down by season’s end in compiling a 9-17 record.

“I think we looked better early on,” Mitchell said of that club. “We kind of got frazzled because we’ve got a decently tough schedule and we weren’t mature enough to handle a full slate of varsity games. Playing 26 games, I think the last six were too much for us, but I think we’ll respond to that better this year.”

Most of the team returns, starting with the top two scoring options – senior guard Steven Culbertson and sophomore forward Merced Cisneros.

At 6 feet, 3 inches, Culbertson has good size for a guard and plays on the block in the team’s 2-3 zone defense. He was second on the team in scoring (14.8 points) and rebounding (8.2) last season. He led the team in assists (6.9) and can play either guard spot.

“He’ll do a little bit of both because we have more experience this year at point guard with some of our younger players, so we should be able to give him a break (from point guard) once in a while,” Mitchell said.

Playing off the ball could also free Culbertson up for more shots from the perimeter, where he canned 45 3-pointers last season.

At 6-1, 210 pounds Cisneros is not overly tall, but he’s a physical presence in the paint. He nearly averaged a double-double with 18.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per night as a freshman.

“He can score from anywhere,” Mitchell said. “He’ll shoot more two-pointers than 3s, but he can hit an occasional 3. I think he’ll be able to produce about that many points again, and he’ll be solid for us.”

Culbertson was a first-team all-conference and second-team all-district selection last season and made the KMZU dream team. Cisneros was also on the KMZU squad and was second-team all-conference and made the all-Johnson County squad.

Senior Jeff Werntz (6-3) returns as the team’s center after averaging 5.1 points and 7.4 rebounds as a junior.

“He has improved on his shot blocking over the summer and his moves around the basket,” Mitchell said.

The players are still battling in practice to determine the rest of Mitchell’s rotation.

“There’s probably 11 other players that have a chance to start,” he said.

Junior members of the team include Nick Brewer, Darron Werntz, Cody Schumacher, Stephen Dallas and Mikey Davolt. There are four more sophomores: Christian Harness, Justin Lankford, Tyler Metz and Matt Gregory, and six freshmen: Dillon Anstine, Josiah Carr, Nick Dallas, Brandon Lankford, Matt West and Alex Edwards.

The Indians have a slate of about 13-15 JV games and some players will see time at both the JV and varsity levels. Mitchell plans to take advantage of his bench when he can.

“I feel like at this point in time we’re handling it well and that’s something we need to continue handling well throughout the season,” he said. “With that kind of competition (for playing time) it could upset some people, so hopefully we can keep them all happy.”

Mitchell is looking forward to watching the team develop.

“We’re still young, we’ve only got two seniors,” he said. “We’ll be pretty youthful, but I feel like we’ve had two pretty good junior high teams the past couple of years, and some of them have enough experience to at least play some varsity.”