Basketball teams at Hiland just keep on winning

By ROGER METZGER

You've got to give it up to the high school girls' and boys' basketball programs at Hiland.

Once again, they are the center of supremacy of area high school basketball.

The Hiland girls are ranked No.1 and the Hiland boys are ranked No. 2 in the first Associated Press basketball polls of the season.

Despite being the defending state champions and losing an All-Ohioan in Jena Stutzman, the Hiland girls are undefeated in 2008-09 and look every bit of a team that could repeat and bring back championship hardware to Berlin.

Karli Mast, Noelle Yoder and Hilary Weaver are in double figures in scoring and Katelyn Stuckey is a tick under double digits for  the Inter-Valley Conference-leading Hawks of Coach Dave Schlabach.

Meanwhile, the Hiland boys are also undefeated and atop the IVC standings.

At the beginning of the season, Coach Mark Schlabach felt his team needed to find some scorers.

Try these guys on for size.

Colten Hostetler, Dylan Kaufman, Colton Troyer and Noah Boyd are all averaging in double figures and, like the Hiland girls, the Hawks are getting contributions from up and down the lineup.

The Hawks have not only been able to shoot the threes, but they've been solid inside as well with Kaufman and Troyer throwing down thunderous dunks.

It's still too early to tell how well the Hiland programs will perform in the postseason. But they're off to a very good start.