MISHAWAKA – There is no shortage of area basketball talent on the Bethel College men’s basketball roster for the 2015-16 campaign.

The impressive list of former local high school basketball standouts on the Pilots’ roster features plenty of players who grew up going against each other in high school hoops.

A pair of those players looking to help Bethel soar again this season are junior Jordyn Coon and sophomore Tanner Shepherd. Coon hails from Warsaw, while Shepherd started his prep career at Tippecanoe Valley and then played his final three years at Triton.

“I think that it speaks volumes about northern Indiana basketball,” said Shepherd at Media Day in the Wiekamp Center at Bethel on Tuesday. “There are a lot of really good players in this area.

Shepherd, who played on the Bethel JV team most of last season, teamed up with current Bethel star Clay Yeo at Triton to help the Trojans to a Class 1-A state runner-up finish in 2013. Now, the smooth southpaw guard goes against his former teammate in practice.

“I love it,” said Shepherd of squaring off against Yeo, the junior star of the Pilots. “It’s so much fun, but it’s tough. Clay is good. He just keeps improving.”

Shepherd says he just wants to push his teammates each day to make the team stronger as a unit.

“I come to practice and just try to make everyone better,” Shepherd remarked. “I just try to lead our Gray team and bring a lot of energy. We’re a very close team this season.”

Coon played in 26 games a year ago as the Pilots went 27-7 overall and lost in the title game of the league tourney in the always tough Crossroads League and then lost in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament. He played an average of 11.2 minutes per game, while scoring 3.1 points-per-game and adding two rebounds per contest.

“I just want to be a leader for us,” said Coon of a team that has just one senior this season. “I just will do the dirty work, get on the floor, whatever we need.”

“I think that we have great team chemistry this year.  We played together on a trip to the Dominican and were here all summer playing together. I think all of that experience will help us. I think that we have more balance this year and a good freshman class and our big guys have improved.”

Shepherd says there is a lot of talk among the team about the past clashes on the hardwood.

“We talk about our high school days a lot,” admitted Shepherd. “When Clay was a senior, we (Triton) beat both Warsaw and Valley.”

The Pilots will also look to get contributions from another pair of former area prep standouts in Nick Kindig of Tippecanoe Valley and Will Stueve from NorthWood.

Kindig, a junior guard, scored 1,254 career points at Tippecanoe Valley during his high school career. He averaged a team-high 18.7 points-per-game his senior season as the Vikings went 20-4 and won the Three Rivers Conference title and sectional championship. Kindig also plays on the men’s tennis team at Bethel.

Stueve, a sophomore forward, averaged 11.3 ppg. his senior season at NorthWood when the Panthers were 21-3 and won a sectional title. He appeared in six games last season for Bethel.

The roster for coach Mike Lightfoot’s squad has 14 of its 16 players total hailing from Indiana.

Bethel opens its season by hosting IUSB on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.