‘Cats down Raiders by 20 points

Edgar off to a great start this season

Early results this season don’t indicate the fact Edgar’s varsity boys basketball team lost its entire starting lineup from last year. Last season’s Wildcats squad competed at state for the first time in 24 years and finished with a 23-3 record after losing to Oshkosh Lourdes in a WIAA Division 4 state semifinal at the La Crosse Center.

Edgar head coach Dave Huss, in the midst of his ninth season at the helm, is getting the most potential he can out of his three seniors in guards Everet Brehm and Ashton Schuett and forward Ayden Weisenberger who have varsity-playing experience from coming off the bench last year.

“We will be relying heavily on Everet, Ashton and Ayden to provide good leadership for our team,” Huss said. “They have the most experience, have played in important and meaningful games and they understand the speed in which the varsity game is played at. We are hoping they are able to help our younger players learn and develop as the season progresses, so we are hopefully able to hit our peak at the right time of the season.”

The Wildcats improved their record to 2-1 in the Marawood South Conference and 3-1 overall after easily beating their arch-rival Marathon Red Raiders, 59-39, on the road Tuesday.

Junior guard Justin Davis sank three straight three pointers toward his 14 second-half points in the victory against Marathon. The Wildcats made nine of 14 three pointers for 64 percent shooting in the game and they shot an overall 21 of 40 for 52.5 percent shooting from the field against the Red Raiders.

Both Edgar and Marathon committed 22 turnovers, but the Wildcats’ defense held the Red Raiders to zero of 10 shooting from behind the arc.

Edgar beat Marathon all three times they played each other last season, including in the WIAA Division 4 regional championship. The Wildcats won the Marawood South Conference last season with a 14-1 record with senior starting players Drew Guden, Brayden Baumgartner, Kyle Brewster, Austin Dahlke and Konnor Wolf.

This season, Edgar has won three straight games since suffering a lopsided defeat at Wausau Newman, 7846, in the opener.

The other top returners for Edgar this season are senior forward Peyton Dahlke and Davis, who was a thorn in Marathon’s side from long-distance shooting in Tuesday’s win.

Edgar’s top newcomers to the varsity squad this season are sophomore forwards Karter Butt and Brett Baumgartner, sophomore guard Teegan Streit and freshman guard Leyton Schuett.

Coach Huss will have Edgar’s varsity boys basketball team playing the type of style that suits its strengths this season. He said there could be some changes in the team’s starting lineup throughout this season.

“Our starting lineup will most likely be a fluid thing throughout the season, especially in the early going; we want to develop our depth early on and get as many guys into the rotation early to see who performs best in live game situations,” Huss said.

“Our offense and defense will hopefully match the strengths of our players. We have some foundational program values on both offense and defense that we try to follow, but the specific Xs and Os might be different from last year.

“As a coach, I believe each year it is my duty to figure out how to put our players in the best position to be successful and to figure out what schemes work the best with our personnel.”

Don’t expect the Wildcats to be in rebuilding mode this season, even though they don’t return any starting players from last season.

“I told the players at the beginning of the season that every year brings with it new players, but our expectations as a program will always remain the same,” Huss said.

“We want our guys to be selfless on the court, disciplined in how we play, passionate about the game, together as a team and humble in both victory and defeat. If we do those five things, we hope that winning will be the byproduct.

“With every team, we are trying to ‘max out’ and get our guys to play each game to their fullest potential.”

Coach Huss expects his team will be in contention for the Marawood South Conference championship like it is every season.

“As always, the Marawood South will be a very competitive conference,” he said. “We hope that we can be in the mix and compete with whomever is on the schedule that respective night. Wausau Newman has a very strong team as does Marathon.

“Stratford and Auburndale are always very well coached and prepared, and Wisconsin Rapids Assumption will be much improved from last year. I think on any given night, anyone can beat anyone.”

Huss’ assistant coaching staff this season consists of Jim Heidmann, 34th year; Tom Bauman, 20th year; along with Chris Trawicki and Alec Hafferman in their first years.

Trawicki did coach eight years in Edgar’s boys youth basketball program before this season.