The Lehighton boys' basketball team will have to adapt to a lot of change if it intends to be successful in the 2014-15 basketball season.

The Indians recently graduated three seniors in Anthony Rossino, Vince Mele, and James Farano who not only accumulated a ton of minutes, but displayed impressive leadership qualities. Those three former Indians contributed largely toward a 14-10 overall record, which was one of head coach Rich Oertner's most successful seasons during his tenure with the program."We lost some guys last year, and we don't really have a leader right now which is a big issue," explained the Lehighton coach."I think right now we're a little behind where we were last year. We're definitely smaller than we were last year and we need to work harder defensively."Oertner notoriously runs a limited rotation that will feature some new faces this year.Expect to see about a six-man rotation from Lehighton which includes Jordan Knappenberger and Tyler Crum as the only returning starters. Tyler Williams (5-11 senior), Nick Chambers (6-3 junior), Tom Ruzicka (5-8 senior), and Tanner Zwetolitz (6-2 junior) will most likely all be the athletes seeing the floor for the 2014 edition of the Indians. Although there are a plethora of seniors in the rotation, most have limited or no varsity experience."I'm hoping we'll get better as the season goes on," explained Oertner. "Ruzicka will be running the point but he has basically no experience there. We're pretty athletic and we're going to have to try and run up and down the floor more than usual."Oertner noted that another early obstacle is that a majority of his starters just got finished wrapping up the football season, and might not be in basketball-shape right from the get-go.Not only does Oertner's squad have the challenges of a major personnel change and having multi-sport athletes, but this will also be the Indians' first season in the Schuylkill League."It's a way different style of play in the Schuylkill League," Oertner said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems that the MVC (Mountain Valley Conference) kids relied more on their athleticism, but didn't quite have the basketball IQ that you see in the Schuylkill League. I think we were one of the smartest teams in the MVC."Oertner's goal for this squad is simply to make it back to the postseason."The goal is always to make the district playoffs. I want to say it's realistic that we have about a dozen games on our schedule that are toss-ups. We could either win nine games or 15 games. A lot of it will depend on if we're healthy and making a few shots here and there. The focus just isn't here yet and I don't know why."It's a tough spot playing in the same division as teams like Blue Mountain and Pottsville, and only two teams come out of the division. It's going to be difficult to win those kinds of games. It should definitely make for an interesting season, finding communication and leadership will be very important."