After decades pacing the sidelines inside Hodges Fieldhouse and on the court named in his honor, Dennis Pilcher turned control of the Iowa Central men's basketball program over to Chad Helle.

The long-time assistant, and former Triton player himself, has a roster filled with all new faces, including several that played high school basketball in Iowa. 

"A lot of freshmen struggle with that day-to-day practice of effort and attitude," Helle said. "But I have been really pleased with how this group has taken that next step from high school to college basketball."

Former St. Edmond all-stater Andrew Gibb, who became the school's career scoring leader, is among those from the area helping make Helle's transition from assistant to head coach easier. Other Iowa natives include Dante Jenkins-Kinnetz, Nathan Martinek, Jeremy Kambomba, Javonte Keck, Cham Deng and Sam Glenn.

"The good thing about having an entirely new team is that these guys only know me as the head coach," Helle said. "None of them knew me as their assistant. There is nothing anybody has to prove to me other than having good effort and attitude. If we can keep that going, we'll be okay and by the time we turn into the conference season, we'll give ourselves a good chance."

Rounding out the roster are Ayris Abdelnassar, Maalik Harut, Simon Brathwaite, Arthur Weston JR, Jeremiah Hurst, Julian Barr, Marquis Henry and D'Monte Gaw.