Sporting News Has Warriors No. 1

Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills basketball team will go into the new season with a new coach and a number-one national ranking.

The Warriors are the No. 1 rated junior college team in the country in the Sporting News preseason poll. TSN’s poll includes all schools in the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as those two-year schools in California and Washington that are not part of the NJCAA.

Barret Peery took over the IHCC program after last season and, apparently, as far as the people who put together the preseason rankings are concerned, has put together a talented team.

But Peery acknowledges that the 13 new players on the roster aren’t solely responsible for the lofty ranking. “I know that most of the credit goes to the Indian Hills name and the tradition that’s been built here,” said Peery in talking about the poll.

“Being No. 1 doesn’t mean a lot in September, but I’m excited to know that people recognize the hard work that we have put in to build this team so quickly,” Peery said. “There will be pressure on us from Day 1 with a bulls-eye on our chest.”

But the coach also relishes the fact that the Warriors are in the top spot, saying, “There is always pressure to win and this just heightens the expectations, which is fine with me.”

Peery came to Indian Hills after three years as an assistant coach at the University of Utah. Prior to that, he was the head coach for three years at the College of Southern Idaho, the team that, in a bit of irony, is ranked second in the preseason poll, behind the Warriors.

It is the second time in four years the Warriors will enter the season as the nation’s top-rated team. They were also ranked first at the start of the 2008-09 season and went on to finish 30-3 that year.

Three more players were added to the IHCC roster at the start of the school year. They are Dustin Hogue, a 6-5 wing from Yonkers, New York; Frank Williams, also a 6-5 wing, from Raytown, Missouri; and Rawane Ndiaye, a 6-10 post player from Dakar, Senagal.

Peery describes Hogue as “a tremendous athlete that can play multiple positions at both ends of the floor.”

Williams is “a very good shooter, with great length and a very good basketball IQ,” according to the coach.

And Ndiaye, says Peery, is “a very big-bodied post who gives us depth and size on the inside.”

Indian Hills opens the 2011-12 season against Indiana Dabney University in the Jack Blackwell Tire Co. Classic on Nov. 4.