By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
The hammer and chain you might see that Washburn Rural boys basketball posts on X after every game, that’s not going away this year.
Senior Simon Rowley earned All-Shawnee County Top 10 honors for Washburn Rural last season. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Blues coach Alex Hutchins said that started when he started coaching in 2018 and it became an idea when Hutchins started watching baseball games and believes it came from former MLB player Carlos Beltran.
Regardless of a win or loss, the players choose who gets the hammer and/or chain based on doing it the right way according to Hutchins.
The hammer goes to the player who does things right offensively and the chain is for defense.
“It holds us accountable to our core values and being tough and going out there to perform every night. It just makes you have that dawg mentality when you’re out there. You want to compete for the chain and the hammer,” senior standout Simon Rowley said.
Hutchins will be in his fourth year with the Junior Blues and this senior class has been with him the whole time, with the exception of Rowley, who transferred in last season.
Last year's team finished at 18-5 and advanced to the state tournament before falling in the first round to Wichita Heights. That was Rural's first trip to the big dance since 2019 where they were the state runnerups.
“We’ve felt like we’ve hit the ground running more this year than probably any other year and part of that is the decisions as a coaching staff to stick with some things that have worked, but part of it is a deep roster of kids who have been with us through a lot,” he said.
Rowley and John Hoytal return as starters from last year's group, while Draden Chooncharoen, Brooks Ballard and Kieffer O’Connor, who’s won the JV MVP the last two years, are names to look out for, too.
Hutchins likes the passing, cutting and sharing of the ball so far. He said the Junior Blues' defense has been underwhelming, but is hoping that’s because of the offensive players and their IQ and making plays happen. Hutchins said something they will have to find is those on-ball defenders they lost.
“Attention to detail. Making sure that we sweat all the little stuff early. I know it's cliche but that’s the stuff that gets you beat later on,” Hutchins said.
“I think last year's group unlocked a different level of offense for us. I think part of that is just poor coaching for the first couple of years. I finally did a better job of recognizing what fits our guys and fits our skill set the most.”
Rowley himself says he likes the aggressiveness of the team and how they can shoot. The personalities on the team all mesh well because of the team bonding activities. He says they’ll have to utilize everyone’s strengths and help to push the best of their teammates.
Now, it’s go time for the Junior Blues and Rowley is ready to show it.
“Being a hard-nosed team, definitely being tough because last year, we were smaller than everybody but this year we have some height and I think we can make our own story and we’re ready to go show it,” Rowley said.
