Senior Tanner Andrews returns to lead the way for the Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball team. The three-sport star averaged 17 points and seven rebounds per game last season (File photo by Mike Deak)

AKRON – Coach Bill Patrick believes that if he ever gets a full and completely healthy roster that his Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball team can be pretty good this season.

Right now, the Vikings are just not at full strength.

Valley, which opens its season by hosting county rival Warsaw Wednesday, has the pieces back to make the 2013-14 campaign another very successful one.

“We can have a solid team with everybody healthy,” said Patrick. “That’s the concern for us right now. We can be solid at every position with a lot of depth this year.

“I think that by the middle or end of the season we could be pretty good. The key is for everyone to play together and for no one to be concerned about playing time. They all have to just be concerned about the team.”

The Vikings went 20-4 overall and won the Three Rivers Conference title at 7-0 last season. Valley claimed the Class 3-A Wawasee Sectional championship before losing 77-65 to Norwell in a regional semifinal game. Their four losses were to Warsaw, Plymouth, Triton (the Class 1-A state runner-up) and Norwell.

Valley did lost top scorer Nick Kindig, who averaged 18.7 points-per-game and led the Vikings with 43 treys. The talented guard, who scored over 1,000 points in his prep career, is now at Bethel College. The Vikings also lost gritty Jacob Ritchey, who was second on the team in assists.

“Those were two big losses for us,” said Patrick, entering his 45th year overall and 16th at Valley.

The Vikings do return star Tanner Andrews. The 6-3 senior forward averaged 17.3 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game last season while shooting 59 percent from the field. The three-sport standout had a program record-tying 51 points to go with 31 rebounds last year in a record-setting 146-56 TRC home win over Wabash.

Andrews, a star receiver for the Valley football team, is unfortunately one of those hurting for the Vikings.  Andrews has an injured shoulder, while senior guard Robby Groom has an ankle injury and senior Derrick Cunningham a knee problem. Both Andrews and Groom did play in the team’s scrimmage Thursday night at Elkhart Memorial, but Cunningham did not.

“I expect both Tanner and Robby to play against Warsaw,” said Patrick Thursday night. “I think Derrick is doubtful for that game.”

Groom and 6-5 senior Logan Britton are both back for the Vikings. Each started the first 14 games last season before choosing to quit the team. Groom, who practiced with the team the rest of last season, averaged five points and Britton seven and four rebounds.

The Vikings are also going to be without Alex Thacker. The junior, who started 10 games last season and averaged 6.9 ppg., is out for the season as of now due to a school disciplinary issue.

Patrick, who is schedule to coach his 1,000th career game in the NorthWood Tournament on Jan. 4, anticipates his starting lineup for the opener to definitely include Andrews, Groom and 6-5 junior Chainey Zolman (who averaged five points per game last season). Junior Jarred Littlejohn is likely to also start in the backcourt.

“We’re going to rely on Tanner and Chainey for scoring, but we need more guys to step up and score six, eight, 10 points for us this year,” Patrick said. “We should be strong inside with our size and a good rebounding team.

“Our five seniors are going to play a lot. All of them are capable of starting for us. The key is that the team has to come first before anything else.”

The Valley roster also includes senior Ben Shriver, junior Alex Salmon, sophomores Gavin Bussard and Neil Clampitt and freshman Alec Craig.

“Ben (Shriver) has good quickness and a great attitude,” noted Patrick. “Gavin (Bussard) is going to push for playing time. He just goes hard, full speed all the time. If I had 12 guys like him, we would go undefeated.”

Patrick is 713-278 in his 44 seasons on the bench at South Whitley, Whitko and Valley. The Hall of Famer is 325-98 in his 15 seasons at Valley, including a 36-9 overall mark (13-1 in the TRC) over the last two seasons.

Valley hosts Warsaw, who they last defeated in 2006, on Wednesday night. The Vikings open TRC play at Whitko Dec. 20.