Raiders aim to continue winning ways

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW

NEW ROLES, NEW FACES, SAME GOALS

After falling short in an exciting WIAA Division 2 sectional final with La Crosse Central last March, the Medford Raiders are back at the starting line for a new boys basketball season.

There are a handful of familiar faces and some new ones at the varsity level. The goal of being the best team the Raiders can be at season’s end remains the same.

Starting his eighth full season as Medford’s head coach, Ryan Brown said Thursday the team was picking up the pace as its opening week of two-aday practices was winding down. That follows what he termed “a really good summer” where turnout was high in contact days, camps and summer league and tournament play as players looked to fill or expand their roles following the departures of seven seniors from last year’s team, which was Medford’s WIAA first sectional finalist since 1983.

“I thought all summer long we had good buy-in,” Brown said. “Kids worked hard, kids were in the gym, which you expect because we had good leadership. We were just really hoping they would have success in their fall sports, which so many of them did, and we were hoping they would be healthy. We were fortunate to come out good with all of that stuff with healthy kids. It’s interesting, even from summer to now, to see the change in some of these younger guys and some of the older ones is fun to watch.”

The Raiders got their first taste of competition Wednesday morning when they scrimmaged the Eau Claire North Huskies in the Dog Pound, the site of the 56-47 loss to La Crosse Central back on March 12. They’ll tip things off for real this coming Tuesday when they host the Chippewa Falls Cardinals at 7:15 p.m. at Raider Hall. Great Northern Conference play starts Dec. 2 with a visit from the Lakeland Thunderbirds.

The Raiders start the season with five experienced players locking down the starting spots. From there, Brown said roles are unsettled now, but it will be fun to see who fills them and to what extent as the season progresses.

The top five includes seniors Logan Baumgartner, Charlie Kleist, Ty Metz and Zach Rudolph and junior Tanner Hraby.

Baumgartner is a reigning co-Great Northern Conference Player of the Year, an award he shared with Northland Pines guard Nolan Lurvey, who also returns this season. The 6-4 Baumgartner enters his fourth varsity season on pace to easily break Peyton Kuhn’s not even two-year-old all-time school scoring record and is coming off a junior season that saw him average 21.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game.

Brown said Baumgartner’s game is pretty much complete as he looks to finish strong before moving on to the next level.

“Logan has really put his whole game together, inside and out,” Brown said.

Baumgartner joins Kleist and Metz in giving Medford, what Brown feels, what might be its most intriguing team attribute –– its physicality and ability to get things done inside the paint area. That’s true even with Baumgartner’s wellknown prowess for being deadly from behind the 3-point arc.

“We like to be a tough team physically as it is and, also mentally, but people are going to be surprised to see where Charlie Kleist and Ty Metz are,” Brown said. “Those two are beasts and it will be fun to see when we play different teams. Even though we are a five-out team, I think we’ll have the ball in the post off of either a drive and a post-up or just a pin and a post-up maybe more than we ever have.”

Kleist shared the team’s Most Improved Player award last year with Hraby and showed some of that beast mentality in the second half of the season with his rebounding and his ability to finish at the rim. Metz didn’t get as much varsity playing time but he took full advantage of his off-season and is ready to fill a much bigger role this season.

“I’m interested to see how it actually plays out,” Brown said. “(Kleist), in some ways, might actually be our most valuable player, if that makes sense. Logan, by far, is our best player. Tanner is an amazing athlete at what he does and how he gets his shots off. But Charlie is a game changer. He has this ability to finish and get to the rim and rebound and just do some things that I don’t know if anybody else on our team can actually do. Ty is not far behind him with what he does physically. Those three are in a group every day for oneon- ones, if it’s in the post or if it’s off the perimeter and it’s fun to watch. They just get after each other.”

Hraby and Rudolph are Medford’s top options at guard. Hraby is another player who blossomed as last year progressed and finished with All-GNC honorable mention, a 13.5 points per game average to go with 2.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He’ll be the primary ball handler this year with the departure of All-GNC first-teamer Joey Sullivan.

Rudolph gave Medford some quality spot minutes last year. He is ready for a bigger role with his off-season work and a confidence-building fall season as the GNC’s co-Offensive Player of the Year in soccer.

“Tanner will be just as explosive as last year with scoring, but he’ll have a lot more of a role in bringing the ball up,” Brown said. “But it’ll be in a different way than Joe. It’s fun to watch. They both are really, really good point guards. They just have different ways of getting into gaps and doing things.”

The experience level drops off quite a bit after those five. Seniors Vincent Seidel and Anakin Stokes return, looking to break into the rotation consistently for the first time. Junior Nick Steliga, Brown said, was a player who opened some eyes on the coaching staff with his work on opening week. Sophomore Charlie Gierl and junior Conner Klingbeil also have opportunities to get into the rotation for regular playing time. Klingbeil, he said, has the offensive tools to be in the mix.

“I think guys that are really on the verge of breaking in are Steliga and Charlie Gierl,” Brown said. “Charlie Gierl has the body and works his butt off. Steliga has got the brains and he’s grown a little bit. He doesn’t give up a single inch for his size.” Also working with the varsity are juniors Logan Gubser, Carson Carbaugh and Owen Stockwell and sophomore Hayden Koester.

As always under Brown’s watch, attention to defensive detail will be key in determining who plays how much. The Raiders expect to remain a man-to-man based team, but they plan to have some zone tricks in their back pockets, just in case.

“It’ll get there,” Brown said of the team’s defense, which struggled very early last year but quickly solidified in December and wound up allowing just 50 points per game. “We’ll be physical. The emphasis this year is on hands. We’ll have to learn not to use our hands. We really have to get to where we’re just moving our feet and we’re rebounding well. I think we have the guys to do it. Those younger guys will have to get up to speed with not giving up the middle of the floor and rotating and scrambling. I think we’ll get there.”

Tough schedules have become nothing new for Medford and this year’s slate goes up one notch further with the addition of Onalaska, a perenniallyformidable squad out of the Mississippi Valley Conference. Medford will go there on Dec. 3 and could face the Hilltoppers again in the post-season. The Raiders were moved to the western side of the Division 2 sectional this year, meaning they’ll see Mississippi Valley and Big Rivers Conference teams right out of the gate in regionals.

On top of that, the Great Northern Conference, coming off its best season in a while, brings back the majority of that talent from a year ago. Mosinee is the defending champion having gone 11-1 in league play and 22-3 overall. Medford, Rhinelander (6-6, 13-14) and Northland Pines (9-3, 18-7) made sectional appearances.

“Every year I think we’ve said this, but I think the schedule is the best we’ve had with Onalaska, with La Crosse Central, a number of Big Rivers schools, a number of Valley schools,” Brown said. “Our conference has to be about as good as it gets. Pines brings everybody back from their sectional team, Lakeland brings their entire team back, Mosinee brings most of their team back, especially their primary guys. You add to that with Rhinelander, they’re going to be young, but they’re always well-coached. They’re going to play hard. Antigo has a new coach. They were all juniors. Tomahawk had four starters that were juniors. I think it’s going to be just a battle almost every night.

“We’ve gotten to that point where, you obviously want to win your conference. There’s no doubt about that,” Brown added. “But our goal now is we want to be battle-tested. The ups and downs of last year and some of the wins and losses and close games, with all of those I think the kids realized it’s not just about what your record is. It’s about playing the best teams so you’re ready to go play Central in a sectional final or Onalaska in a regional final or whatever it’s going to end up being this year.”

Medford’s Logan Baumgartner eyes the rim while taking a 3-point shot during practice on Friday afternoon.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS