Manchester, West Union, ACCS test new coaches in summer shootout

Manchester High School’s summer boys basketball shootout was less about the scoreboard than about what three programs were trying to build before winter. Manchester, West Union and Adams County Christian School all brought varsity teams under new head coaches, turning a June run into an early test of systems, chemistry and expectations.

That made the shootout especially useful for Manchester’s Karson Reaves, West Union’s Frankie Rowe and Adams County Christian’s Connor Darnell. With each program adjusting to fresh leadership, the matchup offered something a normal summer scrimmage could not: a first look at how players handled new demands, how quickly rotations settled and which groups could grow into the season ahead.

Reaves, a 2023 Manchester graduate, stepped into the varsity job after serving as the junior varsity coach last season. He inherited a roster that lost seven seniors, a turnover that forced the Lions to start almost from scratch. Even so, Reaves had an advantage many first-year head coaches do not. He already knew many of the players through school and coaching connections, and that familiarity has helped the transition as Manchester works through the early stages of a reset.

The early signs, Reaves said, have shown up on the defensive end. Manchester has competed with effort, but the offense still needs time to come together as players learn one another’s tendencies and adapt to new responsibilities. That is the central challenge of summer basketball in Adams County this year: finding identity before the official season begins, when wins and losses will count in a much different way.

Reaves also brought his own next step into focus. He already holds an associate degree from Maysville Community and Technical College and plans to continue his education in intervention work through the University of the Cumberlands. That gives Manchester a coach who is still building his own path while trying to build a new varsity program at the same time.

West Union’s work was not done after the Manchester stop. The Dragons were set to return to action in the Ripley Summer Shootout that weekend, with games lined up against Ripley, Felicity, Augusta, Blanchester and Bethel-Tate. For all three Adams County programs, that schedule underscored the same point: summer basketball is now a proving ground, where coaches test lineups, players try to earn trust and the first outlines of the winter season begin to appear.