Scouting Aurora Christian Eagles

Aurora Christian Eagles

Coach Steve Hanson

Last year 14-13, 5-3, fourth in the Private School League.

Postseason Lost 59-51 to St. Edward in Class 2A Genoa-Kingston regional championship game.

Key losses Nate Hill, Jordan Roberts, Eric Anderson.

Top returnees Salomon Kabongo-Kooper (6-6, sr., F); Dean Griffing (6-2, sr., F)

Newcomers to watch Jake Hanson (5-11, so., G); Josh Haugen (5-11, so., G); Nick Marema (6-1, so., G); Grayson Roberts (5-11, so., G); C.J. Schutt (6-3, so., F).

Outlook Steve Hanson - last year's freshman coach and a former computer guru who joined Aurora Christian's faculty two years ago - succeeds Marc Davidson, the one-year coach among several to have positions eliminated. This will be Hanson's first varsity coaching job but he's coached basketball and baseball for 15 years. Having lost Luke Johnson (Wheaton Academy) and Jeremy Anderson (Newark) to transfer, he returns only Kabongo-Kooper (2.1 ppg) and the physical Griffing (2.2 ppg) with much varsity experience. "Extremely inexperienced" is how Hanson terms this group, which includes his son, Jake, plus Haugen and Marema as a guard trio who each averaged about 10 points on last season's 14-9 sophomore team. Like fellow Suburban Christian Gold foe Aurora Central, the Eagles will push the ball and shoot from the perimeter. Choreographing things, as he did as football quarterback, will be point guard Grayson Roberts. Aurora Christian left holiday tournaments at Batavia and Plano for Sycamore and East Aurora. The mantra in Hanson's first year is steady improvement. "My hope is that by when January rolls around we're going to be competitive, and then we'll steer our thoughts toward the regional."