Players and administration attended a Tuesday media session for the Hamilton County Huskers, a new professional team associated with The Basketball League. The Huskers play their first game Saturday at the SAC Arena, the Hamilton Heights Student Activity Center, in Arcadia. (Back row) Jake Mills (assistant general manager), Doug Mitchell (team manager/ owner), Grant Weatherford (player), Jaylen Minnett (player), Larry Johnson (player), and Landon Bair (associate head coach). In front is team mascot Harry the Husker (Eli Landis). (Richie Hall)
Newest TBL squad begins play Saturday
By RICHIE HALL
Fifty years after becoming a star at Hamilton Heights, Doug Mitchell is bringing basketball back to Arcadia.
Not just any kind of basketball. Mitchell is the team manager/owner of the Hamilton County Huskers, a new team that will play in The Basketball League (TBL). The Huskers will compete in the league’s Midwest Conference, one of four conferences across the United States.
Mitchell said the planning stages for the Huskers began on Oct. 30.
“We’re so fresh at this and we’re trying to make sure that things get done before our inaugural tipoff here,” said Mitchell.
The Huskers’ first game tips off at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hamilton Heights Student Activity Center (SAC Arena), 420 W. North St., Arcadia. The team’s first game is against the Lebanon Leprechauns.
Basketball fans get another chance to see the Huskers on Sunday, when they play their second game at 4:30 p.m. against the Kokomo Bobkats. Both are Midwest Conference games.
Other teams in the conference are the Columbus (Ohio) Wizards, the Glass City Wranglers from Toledo, Ohio, the Grove City (Ohio) Whitetails, the St. Louis Griffins and the Lake County Legacy from Waukegan, Ill.
The choice of playing in Arcadia was intentional. Mitchell graduated from Hamilton Heights in 1975, leading the Huskies to a sectional title during his senior year. Mitchell scored 1,167 career points and went on to play at Butler University, where he was awarded the Hilton U. Brown Mental Attitude award in 1979, his college senior season.
Mitchell went on to have a Hall of Fame coaching career, spending 25 years at North Central. He guided the Panthers to two state championships in 1999 and 2010.
Now he’s back at the gym that started it all.
“I played my high school basketball in that gymnasium,” said Mitchell. “And what I maybe had forgotten coaching in Indianapolis all those years was just how wonderful these people are.”
The Huskers held a media session Tuesday night at Wolfie’s Grill in Noblesville, right on Morse Lake. In keeping with the hometown theme, one of the players at the session was Grant Weatherford, a 2015 Hamilton Heights graduate. Weatherford was part of two the Huskies’ sectional winning teams, in 2013 and 2015, and went on to play college basketball.
“Being able to play again where it all started for me, back at Heights, is a chance I never thought that I would have,” said Weatherford.
The Huskers’ assistant general manager is Jake Mills, a 2015 Noblesville graduate who played basketball for the Millers. Mills said that Mitchell had conversations with Weatherford; the two grew up together and played against each other on their respective high school teams.
Mills said that signing on with the Huskers was “an easy yes,” and he immediately got to work with helping the team.
“Building something from scratch, it’s a lot of throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks,” said Mills. “Luckily, we’re surrounded by some people that, one, have had experience in this league and building teams, but also, two, with running organizations and running basketball empires with success.”
The Basketball League began in 2018 as North America Premier Basketball, changing its name to the present TBL in 2019. The league said on its website that it is “dedicated to delivering a World Class Professional Basketball experience to our community, our fans and business partners.”
The experiences include providing communities with a pro team “that gives an affordable/quality family entertainment experience” and allows players “the opportunity to make a living playing the game they love, in America.”
Huskers games take place a through mid-May, with all home games taking place at the SAC Arena. More information is available at the team’s Instagram account, Instagram.com/hcohuskers.
