First-year Warrenton basketball Head Coach Mark Thomas won’t have to deal with many of the issues faced by new varsity coaches, thanks to spending last season as an assistant to former Head Coach Mike Uffmann.

Thomas took over the program after Uffmann accepted the head coaching position at Fort Zumwalt North.

“It’s nice to already know names, and a lot of the stuff is similar,” Thomas said. 

That includes the roster.

The Warriors return four starters from last year, including leading rebounder Caleb Strauss.

The senior forward averaged 11.9 points and 9.2 rebounds a season ago.

“I think we should be alright,” Strauss said. “We have guys who will step up more this year, and Coach Thomas has the run-and-gun style, so we’re definitely in a lot better shape. I think we’re going to run on a lot of people.”

Getting out in transition might be as much of a necessity as a desire for Warrenton, which lost forward and leading scorer Trevor Alberternst to graduation.

Alberternst, who averaged 12.3 points and 4.5 rebounds last season, is currently playing at Fontbonne University.

“Trevor is a hard guy to replace,” Thomas said. “He’s playing college basketball for a reason, so we’re just trying to fill that hole by committee and seeing who fits in on any given day. I think it changes our style a little bit. We’ll be more of a guard-oriented team, with a hybrid who can post up and step out and stretch the defense for us.”

The transition to smaller lineups has been happening at the professional and major college levels for the last few seasons, so Thomas doesn’t seem concerned with the change of style.

“The days of having two dominant post players in there at the same time are kind of in the past,” he said. “So we hope to stretch the floor athletically. We’re shooting the ball pretty well, so we look to play an uptempo game.”

The guard trio of Brenden Smith, Randy McRoberts and Jake Tonioli is expected to start alongside Strauss.

McRoberts led the group with 9.8 points per game last season, while Tonioli and Smith scored 9.5 and 7.9, respectively.

Smith handed out a team-high 4.1 assists, and Tonioli led the way with 50 3-pointers.

Other expected contributors include seniors Brandon Molinari and Dylan Chandler.

The team opens its season at home against Wright City Friday, and heads to the Winfield Boom Classic next week.

“We’ve got some guys that are still trying to get healthy from football, but their attention to detail has been really good. Their attitude and effort is exceptional and we look forward to seeing what we can do this season,” Thomas said. “Me and Mike worked so well together, so we’re going to keep a lot of his stuff and bring in more of mine, and hopefully continue where we left off last year and get a little better result in districts.”