Hanover Central junior Max Wiancek is more sure of his footing this season.
The 6-foot guard was uncertain where he fit with the Wildcats last season — until he claimed a spot in the lineup.
“It was awesome,” Wiancek said. “I didn’t know what I was going to be coming into last year. I didn’t know if I was going to be a JV player or sit bench on varsity. But I ended up starting. It turned out well. I did really good, and the team did really good.”
Hanover Central coach Brad Stangel said his staff wasn’t sure about Wiancek last year either.
“He’s right,” Stangel said. “We had no idea. We didn’t know either. We felt we comfortably had four guys coming into the year who were going to have a chance to play somewhere. We didn’t have a fifth. We didn’t know where to go, and he emerged really early with just the way he played.”
Wiancek, who averaged 5.4 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and a team-high 1.6 steals last season, has built on that foundation, and there’s no question about his role anymore as the Wildcats join the Northwest Crossroads Conference.
On Tuesday, Wiancek scored a career-high 18 points in Hanover Central’s 75-45 season-opening win against Westville, which won the teams’ matchups by narrow margins in each of the previous two seasons.
“I want to help the team a lot on defense and offense,” Wiancek said. “I just want to be there for everybody when things are down and we need to help each other up. I want to be a leader and help carry the team.”
Stangel said one of Wiancek’s strengths is situational awareness.
“He understands what’s going on all the time,” Stangel said. “That’s a big deal. That’s a big deal. We run a lot of different stuff, and Max always knows where he needs to be. That’s important.”
Wiancek said he has also improved his ballhandling and shooting skills, as well as his ability to finish at the rim. He played baseball the past two years but has decided not to continue in order to focus on his basketball development.
“The big thing with Max, Max has grown up a lot from his sophomore year to his junior year,” Stangel said. “He just seems a little more mature. The little things don’t get to him as much. He’s been much steadier in practice, throughout the fall and throughout this season. It’s great because we’re going to ask a lot of him.
“The kid played 28 minutes a game last year, and he’s probably going to play 28 minutes a game this year. That steady confidence he’s bringing to the table will help the new guys. There’s a lot of juniors out here, but there are a lot of new guys too. Having some levelheadedness and being a leader, which Max is, that really helps.”
Indeed, the Wildcats have just one senior on their roster. Seven of their top eight players are juniors. Junior forward/center Brad Rohde, the team MVP last season, and junior guard/forward Henry Maurer, who is also a football standout, join Wiancek as returning starters after the Wildcats went 16-10 and reached a Class 3A sectional final.
“He’s a really strong left-handed player,” Maurer said of Wiancek. “He does just about anything — feed him in the post, feed him on the arc. I have all the faith in the world in that kid having the ball in his hands.”
Wiancek started on the JV team as a freshman. As he was making inroads to earn varsity minutes, he tested positive for COVID-19, which set him back in his progress.
But he and the Wildcats have continued to grow, with that nucleus of juniors putting them in a promising position.
“We’ve been together for a while,” Wiancek said. “All of us have played together. We know each other really well.
“As a leader, it’s just being a good teammate, a good friend and helping people out.”
