Warsaw junior guard Nolan Groninger is the Ink Free News Player of the Year for the 2017-18 campaign. (File photo by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – Nolan Groninger was able to dip his toe in the waters of varsity basketball competition last year.

The Warsaw point guard then made a big splash this season as the latest leading man for the Tigers.

Groninger, who sparked a big-time turnaround by the Tigers, is the Ink Free News Player of the Year for the 2017-18 campaign.

The steady, reliable junior becomes the fourth straight recipient of the honor from coach Doug Ogle’s program. He joins former Tiger star guards Kyle Mangas, who claimed the accolade each of the past two years, and Paul Marandet, who earned the honor in its first year back in 2015.

The soft-spoken, team-oriented Groninger was pleased to learn that he had joined some select company of two other outstanding players who wore the orange and black.

“I always looked up to Paul and Kyle as role models,” said Groninger following a recent practice in the Tiger Den. “It’s pretty cool to be where they were at. Kyle’s work ethic was better than anyone’s. It always amazed me that he was the best player and he worked harder than anyone else did.”

Groninger has done his share of hard work this season to help a very inexperienced Warsaw team find its way. The Tigers, who lost a total of nine players from last season’s squad that lost in the regional final, fell on tough times early this season, losing five in a row in a 3-7 start. The biggest test of the mettle of the team came after a 28-20 loss to rival Wawasee in the Northern Lakes Conference opener in the Tiger Den back on Dec. 15. That loss snapped a 21-game winning streak in Northern Lakes Conference play for the Tigers and also ended a string of 42 consecutive league losses for the Warriors. The 20 points was also the lowest scoring output by a Warsaw team since the 1948-49 season.

Nolan Groninger leads the Tigers in scoring, assists, steals, free throw percentage and minutes played.

“I was always disappointed with the outcome (in the losses), but I also knew that we could turn things around and get better,” Groninger related. “As a team, we stuck together. We believed and as we gained experience as a team we got better.”

Groninger stepped up his game during a huge seven-game winning streak that righted the ship. He amped up his scoring, cut down on his turnovers and got more aggressive on the offensive end as the catalyst for his squad.

“Nolan’s improvement was probably the biggest component of our turnaround,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team ended up sharing the NLC title with Northridge, the Tigers’ fourth straight conference crown. “As he played better, we played better. The key thing for him and for us as a team was he became more steady. He became more patient and less impulsive. His assist to turnover ratio improved and we started playing better as a team.

“We could see last year that Nolan had the potential to be a pretty good player. We looked as him coming into this season as our best player. He had to adjust to a different role and there’s been more pressure on him. It took some time, but he did not waver and he hung in there.

“Nolan has a fearless aspect to him which I like. He’s not afraid of the moment and I appreciate that.”

Groninger leads the Tigers in scoring, assists, steals, free throw percentage and minutes played. He averages 12 points-per-game to go with three rebounds per contest. He has 113 assists to 49 turnovers to go with 24 steals. He’s connected on 110-128 free throw attempts.

Just how important has Groninger been to his team?

The Tigers are 10-5 when he scored 10 or more points. He’s been the team’s top scorer in 12 games, including eight of the last 12. All this from someone who played JV about half of last season and averaged 2.3 ppg. in his varsity action.

Nolan Groninger is money from the free throw line. He is shooting 110-128 from the stripe this season.

“The experience that I gained last year on the varsity helped me be a better player this year,” noted Groninger. “I looked at leadership being a big responsibility for me this year since we did not have much experience back.

“My confidence grew as I grew into my role this season. I’ve been a point guard my whole life, but I needed to score more this year. That can be a hard balance sometimes.”

Groninger, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Mangas, has some strong basketball bloodlines. Older sister Dayton was a standout at WCHS and just the sixth player in school history to score over 1,000 career points on the ladies’ side. The elder Groninger, who was a three-time, first-team selection to the IFN All-Area girls’ team, is currently having a strong freshman season at Indiana Wesleyan University.

“I played a lot of 1-on-1 in our driveway with Dayton,” said Groninger. “There was a lot of blood and tears. But, it was always fun competition. Basketball has always been so important in our family. That makes you work harder.”

The Tigers, who went 1-4 down the stretch versus a very demanding schedule, sit at 11-11 heading into sectional play at Elkhart. Warsaw will begin its push for a third straight sectional title Tuesday night versus Goshen.

Groninger has a tremendous support system as parents Jason and Erika are first-class parents and the biggest fans that No. 3 could ever have.

“My parents have always been my biggest supporters,” said Groninger. “Them and my grandparents, too. My dad has always pushed me. It’s always been fun to have the supporting cast that I have had with my entire family.”

Ogle says that his top player possesses the right set of intangibles.

“Nolan is coachable and he tries to do what I want him to do,”  Ogle commented.

“I see some similarities between him and Kyle (Mangas). He’s humble and coachable. That’s what a coach likes.”

And pretty good company too for the latest Warsaw standout to be in.