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Weber’s Hunter Schenck builds breakout season using grueling drills with brother, move to point guard

By Patrick Carr - Prep Sports Reporter | Jan 28, 2023
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Weber High guard Hunter Schenck drives the ball against Syracuse on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, in Pleasant View.
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Weber High's Hunter Schenck (3) shoots against the defense of Syracuse's Kane King (5) on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, in Pleasant View.

PLEASANT VIEW — Hunter Schenck made his first in-game dunk the summer between his eighth- and ninth-grade years. Schenck’s older brother, Hayden, told him he had potential to blow up as a future college basketball player.

Hayden would know, not only as Schenck’s older brother who’d played ultra-competitive backyard basketball games against him many times, but as a former point guard at Utah Valley University — the same position the younger Schenck, Hunter, is playing now at Weber High.

So Hayden put Hunter to work with grueling basketball workouts comprising most everything in basketball, from ball handling, to shooting, to finishing, and then shooting free throws when you can’t feel your arms after a long “burnout” ball-handling drill.

“It was the ball-handling drills that got me, just burnouts — like, you’re doing 500 burnouts, low, middle, high, different variations, it was everything and you can’t even feel your arms afterward,” Hunter said Monday after Weber High’s practice. “And then he makes you shoot free throws after and it’s like, you miss ’em and you’re running, and he made you do that right after and you’ve got to make them.”

Now a junior, Hunter is still the same lanky, long curly-haired and athletic point guard he was two years ago, but this year more than any of the last two, he’s indeed having a breakout season.

A year after posting 13.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 assists per game, Schenck is up to 22.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game for the Warriors.

In 15 games, Schenck has scored 20 or more points 11 times, including the first nine games of the season. He hit 40 points in a double-overtime loss to Bear River and has thrice scored 28. (And, the night this story was finalized, Schenck scored 37 against Clearfield.)

Part of the increase is Schenck is now, more or less, the focal point of Weber’s offense. The Warriors graduated key seniors from last year’s team, including point guard Cannon DeVries, so somebody had to step up.

He’s playing his natural position, point guard, after starting at shooting guard last season and naturally, Schenck is more comfortable on the court with one year of starting experience to draw from.

Go figure that Schenck, who picked up a summer scholarship offer from Utah Tech and interest from most every other in-state school, was going to be the player to step up.

“Definitely a lot more confident. Teammates got a big deal with that, when they’re confident with the ball in your hands, it makes you a lot more confident,” he said.

On the court, Schenck is a scorer. He gets to the free-throw line a lot (he’s shot 132 free throws through 15 games) and has a high-percentage midrange game — he shoots exactly 50% on 2-pointers overall — something he says has improved a lot over the last year, along with his ball handling.

“He just gets in these rhythms some games where he knocks a few shots down and then me as a coach, I’m like, ‘Well, he’s hitting, I’m gonna give him some freedom and kind of let him do his thing,” Weber coach Landon Cosby said.

Schenck wants to get better on defense and tighten his ball-handling skills, two things he’ll need to work especially hard on if he wants to play point guard effectively at the college level.

The other part of Hunter’s big boost this season goes back to the tough drills Hayden Schenck is putting Hunter through.

One drill is called “5 for 8,” where normally a player has to make 5 of 8 shots from a certain spot on the court to progress to the next spot on the court. The way the Schencks do it, Hunter has to make 7 of 8 and they’re all at game speed.

“That’s a big thing, you gotta go live. We’ll definitely do a bunch of live activities and drills, and things that you have to be able to create on your own, create moves and create shots,” Hunter said. “It’s an eye-opener for sure, (Hayden’s) like, ‘That’s how every college practice is gonna be, so get used to it,’ and that’s nice that he’s putting me through those things.”

Region teams knew about Schenck coming into this season and knew they had to prioritize defending him. He’s still been able to affect the game plenty of ways. After all, his numbers in points, rebounds, assists and steals all lead the team.

“I’ve also been proud of him in the games where teams have tried to take that away and he’s usually our leading assist guy,” Cosby said.

Cosby isn’t surprised at some of the things Schenck can do on a court, but he said he guessed Schenck would average about 18 points per game this year, not 22.5.

Schenck tweaked his groin about a month ago and insists it’s not affecting him during games, but afterward is when he starts to feel the groin wearing on him. He re-aggravated the injury recently, but Weber had its bye in Region 1 play last week so Schenck was able to rest a little.

The Warriors are realistically out of the Region 1 title running at 5-10 overall and 2-4 in Region 1 but, as the No. 21 seed in the RPI as of Friday morning, they retain an outside shot at getting up to No. 16. That would mean a first-round home playoff game if they pick things up in the second half of region play.

As much as basketball is a team game, Weber’s a different team with Schenck in the lineup.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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