Ethan Williams is an inch taller and 30 pounds heavier than he was last basketball season, but his impressive vertical leap remains.
Put it all together and Indian Creek’s 6-foot-5 senior forward is a better — and more consistent — all-around player at both ends of the floor.
Williams has scored in double figures in each of the Braves’ first four games, averaging 16, and he’s pulling down 6.7 rebounds per contest. He tied his season high with 18 points and dominated the glass with 12 boards in Saturday night’s 57-42 home victory over Greencastle.
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Indian Creek is 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Western Indiana Conference standings going into Friday night’s league matchup at unbeaten Cloverdale.
Braves coach Drew Glentzer wanted Williams to build up his body and add layers to his skill set during the offseason in order to improve upon the 10.1 points and 5.7 rebounds he contributed to last season’s 17-8 sectional finalist.
“Last year (Glentzer) just wanted me as a straight-up shooter. This season he wants me to do a little bit of everything,” Williams said. “I feel like this past summer’s AAU season helped me with that. I think small forward is my best position. It’s what I’ve played most the time growing up.”
Williams suited up regularly for the Indy Gym Rats and Indiana Elite Force over the summer, which makes the fact that he was to pack pounds onto his frame during that time that much more remarkable. When he wasn’t playing games, Williams was either at home performing exercises with dumbbells or at former Indian Creek standout Jared DeHart’s residence using DeHart’s home gym. The senior also altered his diet, focusing on protein foods and shakes for the first time in his young life.
He’s been trying to make the most of the extra muscle.
“It just made me realize I can get inside and bang around,” said Williams of his newfound confidence playing close to the basket. “The added weight has helped with rebounding and blocking out, too.”
Glentzer appreciates the work Williams put in, but he thinks there is another factor in the forward’s success.
“Natasha Weddle is Ethan’s aunt, so he’s got pretty good genetics,” said Glentzer, referring to the Indian Creek graduate who scored 1,124 career points and was a member of the 1991 Indiana All-Star team. “But he definitely got in the weight room and did what he needed to do. It didn’t hurt his jumping ability. I can assure you he’s had more dunks in the last two years than anyone in the county.”
Though relatively early in the recruiting process, Williams has received offers from Franklin College and IU South Bend to play collegiately.
“Ethan is very coachable, first of all,” Glentzer said. “He’s been such a good shooter that he had to drive to the basket. But as you get older, your responsibilities increase and your role changes. He’s still in that increasing-his-role mode.”
