Winner High School boys basketball team will open the season on Dec. 9 at Wagner.
The Warriors, who finished last season with a 19-6 record, will return eight lettermen including seven seniors. The lettermen are: Drew DeMers, Cameron Kuil, Trevor Bertram, Isaac Naasz, Chase Kingsbury, Luke Engel, William Schroeder and sophomore Brandon Volmer. In addition to the seven seniors, there are 3 juniors, 10 sophomores and 14 freshmen. Seniors who graduated from last year’s team are Devon Leiferman and Lattrell Terkildsen.
Last season the Warriors had an interesting run to the state tournament. They knocked off Todd County at home, then beat Red Cloud on their home court and in the championship defeated Little Wound in the ice arena at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
At the state tournament in Rapid City, the Warriors came up short in the first game against St. Thomas More. The Warriors placed sixth at the state meet. This was the second consecutive year Winner played in the state tournament.
Coach Brett Gardner, who is starting his third season at the Warrior helm, says the seven seniors have both varsity and state tournament experience. The three returning starters are DeMers, Kuil and Naasz. Gardner says: “We have great leadership. We should be athletic and fast. We might not be as tall as other teams so we have to be faster. We will use our athleticism to our advantage.” The coach says the team will play an up tempo style this year. “We want to get some fast break points on transition.”
Gardner says the Warriors have good shooters in DeMers, Bertram and Engel. “They need to knock down some shots with Cameron, Chase and Isaac needing to get to the rim and finish layups. Willy Schroeder is also a good shooter,” said Gardner. The coach says the team will lean on seniors to do a lot of things. “Our goal is to compete every night and defend the full 32 minutes, knock in some shots and have some fun,” said Gardner.
The first week of practice the team has been working on footwork and fundamentals. “We pride ourselves on defense. Fundamentals, foot work, team work and defense is what we are concentrating on,” said the coach. Gardner says Winner has an awesome schedule and plays in two conferences—Big Dakota and SESD.
The Warriors will play 20 games and have 11 home games. Winner will be in two classics—the Snowball Classic in Winner and the Hanson Classic in Mitchell. As he looks at teams in Class A, Gardner says Class A is stacked this year. “Class A is the best it has been in five years. St. Thomas More returns all its players, Madison is back, Sioux Falls Christian returns a lot in addition to Sioux Valley having a lot of returners.” Assistant coaches will be Trent Olson who is starting his 14th year and Blake Tideman who is beginning his third year.
The 2016-2017 boys basketball schedule includes:
Dec. 9—At Wagner
Dec. 16—At Miller
Dec. 17—Sully Buttes, home
Dec. 22—Parkston, home
Dec. 27—at Bon Homme
Dec. 30—Snow Ball Classic in Winner
Jan. 3—Chamberlain, home
Jan. 6—Bennett County, home
Jan. 7—Gregory, home
Jan. 10—at Valentine
Jan. 19—Pine Ridge, home
Jan. 21—Hanson Classic in Mitchell
Jan. 24—Todd County, home
Jan. 27—MVP, home
Feb. 4—at CEB
Feb. 7—St. Francis, home
Feb. 10—at McLaughlin
Feb. 14—Platte-Geddes, home
Feb. 17—Mobridge-Pollock, home
Feb. 20—at Crow Creek
Feb. 27—Regional
March 16-18—State A in Sioux Falls
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