Fountain Central boys basketball had a season that will be remembered in school history. A 23-5 overall record and it had plenty of celebrations along the way. A Bi-County title, out-right WRC title, the school’s first sectional title since 2015 and their first Regional title in school history.
Leading the way for the Mustangs was junior guard Will Harmon. Harmon did it all FC this past season averaging 15.9 points 3.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.8 steals on defense. He was a lethal shooter from anywhere on the floor shooting 45% from the field and 39.8% from three along with 79.8% from the foul line. In a game on Feb. 4 at South Newton Harmon broke the single game school record for made threes as he made 10.
The leap that Harmon made from his sophomore year to his junior season began way back in the off-season as he knew what he was capable of accomplishing. In this journey Harmon notes how he’s had the help of someone very special to him.
“Everything that I’ve learned even in life has been because of my dad,” Harmon said. “He has the mentality that if you want something, just go get it and I’ve really gotten that from him. If I want to be great at something, then I’m going to do whatever it takes to get there. It helped me a lot being able to come in right away and start my freshman year. I was able to beat out some good seniors that year for a starting spot. Everyone around here at Fountain Central pushes me to continue to get better and that’s allowed me to become who I am today.”
Fountain Central coach Greg Dean was in his first season a year ago during Harmon’s sophomore year and saw his potential as a multi-faceted star. Harmon’s play along with leading the Mustangs to arguably their most successful season in school history has earned him the title of the 2022-23 Journal Review boys basketball Player of the Year.
“Will had some amazing stretches last season but also had some inconsistencies,” Dean said. “This year he had very few games where he didn’t impact the game in some way. He became the all-around player that we knew he could be. After Christmas teams were routinely focusing their defense to stop him. When that happened it didn’t diminish the other things he could do like play great on ball defense and find the open guys when his shot wasn’t there. That was probably the biggest growth and maturation that I saw from him this year.”
Harmon once again didn’t want to take all of the credit for his or the team’s success on the court this past season. He noted how the Mustangs seniors in Luke Foxworthy, Mason Larkin, and Isaac Hehmann brought the entire team together and allowed FC to have fun on the court even during a tight game.
“This group that we had was all love,” Harmon said of this year’s team. “We had leaders who are just great multi-sport athletes. Luke Foxworthy proved why he is a leader in every single sport that he plays. He needs to be talked about more about what he meant for this team. He always guarded the team’s best player and we wouldn’t have been as good as we were if it wasn’t for him.”
A signature moment for Harmon this season came when his team needed someone to make a play in the Regional championship against Liberty Christian. FC trailed by three with just 16 seconds left. Harmon made his defender bite on a pump fake and got fouled on a three point attempt. He casually stepped up to the line and drilled all three to even the game. Then after the Lions lost the dribble on their way down, the ball found its way into Harmon’s hands on a scrum on the floor. He was fouled again and sank both free-throws to score the final five points for the Mustangs to secure the thrilling regional title.
“Will had multiple games this season where he needed to hit free-throws down the stretch and he wasn’t afraid of the moment,” Dean said. “He didn’t back down under pressure even when I called a timeout to set up our defense after he made the first two of three. You need a player like that who can be locked in when it matters most.”
With one more season still left Harmon wants to make sure that he saves his best season for last.
“We proved a lot this year and that makes me even more excited for next season,” Harmon said. “ I know that I’m going to put in the work to get even better. I’m excited for guys like Kobe Wolf, and Isaac Gayler to see how they’re only going to get better too. We’re going to have a lot of guards and I like to play fast. We’ll be able to out-run most of the teams that we play.”
“For all of us and that includes Will, it’s going to take us sitting down and realizing the areas where we can get better,” Dean said. “It’s all about taking this year’s success and parlaying it into an even better year next year.”
Harmon and the Mustangs will have their eyes set on even more success in 2023.
