UC Clermont's Nick Vosel drives toward te hoop in a scrimmage against Wright Patterson Air Force Base on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016.

UC Clermont's Nick Vosel drives toward te hoop in a scrimmage against Wright Patterson Air Force Base on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016.

By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

Lost in the crunching sound of all the fallen leaves and the soft crying of all the Bengals’ fans the last few weeks has been the sure-fire sound that winter is coming: the dribbling of basketballs.

The University of Cincinnati-Clermont college men’s and women’s basketball teams will open the regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 3 with home contests against Edison Community College.

Both teams have new coaches and new faces up and down the roster. The Lady Cougars lost three starters from last year’s team and five of their top eight players overall, but head coach Rick Hosea said the team’s talent helps him see the squad’s glass as half-full.

“The talent level is good and I’m hopeful that we can get everyone on the same page and have a good season,” Hosea said. “Essentially we only return three players that have any kind of significant playing time last year. If you wanted to be you could be full of gloom and doom, but I’m an optimist and I think we might do alright.”

Hosea served on last year’s staff as an assistant before taking over as the head coach earlier this year. He said last year’s team gelled together quickly which allowed them to make a run to the championship semifinals.

“I believe we overachieved,” Hosea said. “We were young, and we got better during the season and our defense got strong enough that we finished the year very well and made the final four of the national tournament. If you had asked any of the coaches at the beginning of the year and said that’s where we’re going to be, that’d be a great accomplishment. Then you get there and you want more.”

The team lost three key players from last year, including Emily Frye. Frye posted a 3.4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio for the team in 2015.

That’s not to say the team has no talent returning. Junior Arica Stuts from Felicity returns after being named to the second-team all-American squad last year.

“She’s a very nice player and I think she’ll take it to another level this year,” Hosea said. “Kelsey Finn is a senior and she was an honorable mention all-american and made the all-tournament team mainly due to things other than scoring. She played the rest of the game very well, but didn’t score much. That’s what I emphasize, shooting comes and goes but you can always play defense, pass the ball and be a good team player.”

Junior Brittany Freson will be asked to take on a larger role this season after serving as the Lady Cougars’ first player off the bench in 2015.

“[She] was the sixth man last year, she’s upped her game another level,” Hosea said. “She’s kind of green, in that last year was really her first year of basketball at the collegiate level. She’s very athletic, very quick.”

Sophomore Brianna Beasley makes a triumphant return to the team this season. Beasley’s road to UC Clermont was a rather strange one.

“[She] actually played for us part of a season two or three years ago,” Hosea said. “She went to Virginia for a couple years, she’s returned. She only played one year and it was at a club level. She matured greatly and handles the ball well. She shoots the three very well.”

The team will give fans several opportunities to root against local rivals this season, according to Hosea.

“We’ve had a long-term rivalry with Miami Middletown, we kind of dominated it for a while but it’s been very, very even for the last couple years,” Hosea said. “St. Mary of the Woods is a USCAA D1 team, but we’ve been playing them twice a year. We’ve also developed a pretty good rivalry with Kentucky Christian. They dominated, we won four or five straight, then they did. We could be back to their level this year.”

Hosea said the team has a simple goal for themselves this season.

“Their goal is to not only return to the national tournament but to win the thing,” Hosea said. “That’s the highest goal.”

He added that if the team gels like he thinks they will, the squad can beat anybody on any given night.

“The girls are working hard, and if they can come together and learn to play as a unit, I think their goals are attainable. Everybody wants to win the national tournament, but there are a whole lot of other teams that are going to fight for it as well. I’m optimistic that we could have a better season than people expect with what we lost.”

Meanwhile, the men’s team is also under new management for this season. Steve Ellis comes to UC Clermont having coached at Mariemont High School from 2008 to 2015. The team had just three players left on the roster when he began recruiting.

“It’s been very busy, we only returned three players,” Ellis said. “We had to do heavy recruiting, we basically have a whole new team. That’s the bulk of what we did in the off-season”

Luckily for Ellis, the team got some mutual interest from recruits across the country, from which they were able to whittle down to 12 players. Last year’s team had talent, according to Ellis, but external circumstances kept getting in the way.

The returning players are expected to play key leadership roles on the team this season.

“They’re welcoming the new staff and talent that’s coming in. the attitude has changed, the culture has changed. The togetherness has been a welcome sight for them.”

One of the players Ellis is most interested in seeing hit the hardwood is six-foot, eight-inch Adam Westheld from Dayton. Westheld joined the team after being named to the all-state squad his senior year.

The team’s schedule is not easy. In just the second week of action, the squad faces off against Andrews University, winners of three of the last five national titles. A few weeks later, the team faces Berkeley, winners of two of the last five championships.

Ellis said he wants the team to work well together first and foremost on the defensive end.

“With a whole new team a big important part is to come together, and get used to playing together,” Ellis said. “Trying to do that on the defensive end, communication is a huge goal of ours. Making sure we communicate well. Trying to win games on defensive end. We’re going to have good size, be quick and athletic. With 30 second shot clock, we want to limit teams to one shot and cause havoc on the defensive end.”

The teams began their season with a home doubleheader against Edison on Nov. 2. The women’s game begins at 5:30 p.m. with the men to follow at approximately 7:30 p.m.