Fishers hires former assistant Miles Wayer to lead boys basketball team

Fishers reached back into its own past to find its next boys basketball coach, hiring former assistant Miles Wayer to take over a program that has spent the last two seasons operating at a championship standard.

Wayer was introduced at Wednesday night’s school board meeting, returning to a place where he spent three seasons on Garrett Winegar’s staff before taking the Greenfield-Central job. He called Fishers “home” for him and his family, a fitting description for a move that is as much about continuity as it is about new leadership. His only season at Greenfield-Central ended with a 12-12 record, but it came in the middle of a rebuild after the program lost Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins and the rest of its senior class.

That background is the key to the hire. Fishers is not looking for a reset; it is looking for a coach who already understands the machinery of a high-end program. Winegar’s exit to Iowa United Prep created the opening, and the Tigers turned to someone who knows the expectations attached to the jersey. Iowa United Prep plays in the Nike EYBL Scholastic circuit during the school year and on the Nike circuit in the summer, and Winegar will coach the freshman/sophomore team in Des Moines, Iowa.

The standard Wayer inherits is unmistakable. Fishers finished 24-1, was No. 1 in the latest Indiana boys basketball Massey rankings, and sat No. 3 in MaxPreps’ Indiana rankings and No. 38 nationally in early April. The Tigers also were ranked No. 2 in one early state ranking story, proof that the program has already been measured against the best teams in Indiana and beyond.

Winegar’s run set a demanding bar. One report said he went 132-25 in six seasons, including an 83-3 stretch over the last three years. That span included a Class 4A state championship two years ago and a trip to the state championship game last season. In other words, Fishers is not hiring for potential alone. It is hiring to sustain a machine that has already proven it can win at the highest level.

That pressure will show up in concrete ways quickly: how Wayer develops the roster, whether Fishers can stay near the top of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference, and if the Tigers remain in the statewide boys basketball conversation. Fishers beat Hamilton Southeastern 75-65 on March 6 and then lost to Carmel 50-49 on March 17, a narrow postseason swing that showed just how thin the margin is at the top. Wayer’s task now is to keep that margin working in Fishers’ favor.