Morice Ayers is holding up Nolan Russell.

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington boys basketball team lost five seniors – all of whom played a significant role on last year’s team.

That seems like a recipe for potential for rebuilding disaster. But maybe not so fast.

Wellington will open the season with a team of six guys who are 6’4″ or taller. There were years in Wellington where the center was 5-10.

How did Wellington come about such height for a school not known for having huge players? But the bigger question will be: “Can they play?”

The 2023 Wellington boys basketball team (Click to enlarge).

Wellington head basketball coach Joe Newman thinks they will.

“We don’t have a lot of experience, so that might be considered a weakness,” Newman said. “We only had two players who saw significant varsity minutes.”

One of those players is Carter Burnett, a 6-5 junior, who blossomed big time last March in Wellington’s post-season run to the state tournament. He literally took over the sub-state championship game against Circle in scoring 16 points and creating steals in the Crusaders’ 65-41 victory in Towanda. That victory helped catapult Wellington into the Class 4A State Tournament for the first time since 2015. It would lose to McPherson in the first round in Salina.

The potential starting five: Dusty Bannister, Brody Weir, Morice Ayers, Carter Burnett, and Nolan Russell.

The other player is Brody Weir, his cousin, a 6-4 junior, who scored 87 points last year.

This year, the transfer portal was kind to Wellington. Nolan Russell, a 6-5, 215-pound senior, transferred here from Arizona, and rumor has it he can play a pretty mean game of basketball.

That then leads to Morice Ayers, a 6-6, senior, who will be an interesting player to watch this year. He intermittently had sparks off the bench last season, showing that he could be pretty good.

That leaves Dusty Bannister, a 6-0, junior, who saw little varsity time until the latter stage of the season. You may have heard his name from football.

“This could be a really good group,” Newman said. “As soon as we get our rhythm, we could turn some heads and make a run.”

Carter Burnett last season.

Nevertheless, at this writing, hours before the first tipoff, there is really no clear indication of what this team will do. It might take a little bit.

Wellington opens tonight, hosting Mulvane. Then, they open the Cheney Tournament on Monday. The Crusaders will be traveling up to play the Class 3A No. 4 preseason-ranked Cheney Cardinals, who may still be polishing their state championship trophy in football.  There is a home game with Pratt on Thursday and the Cheney finals on Saturday.

That sets up the league schedule — which could be interesting. Wichita Collegiate is probably the favorite to win the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Div. IV. The Spartans are ranked No. 1 in Class 3A. Andale is always good. Still, Newman thinks Wellington could compete with both teams. Rose Hill and Wellington are always competitive. El Dorado and Clearwater have potential.

The Crusaders will again play in the Chaparral Tournament in January.

By late February, we will know a lot more about this team. But at the moment, all we know is they are tall.

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