Stratford remains undefeated

Team beats Auburndale

Stratford’s varsity boys basketball team is off to a blazing start this season with a 5-0 record heading into this Friday’s game in Marathon. Stratford easily won its road game against Auburndale, 52-36, on Tuesday. Stratford is currently tied with Wausau Newman atop the Marawood South Conference with 4-0 records.

The Tigers will travel to Marathon this Friday, Dec. 17, to battle a Red Raiders squad looking to rebound from its first loss this season, 59-39, to the Edgar Wildcats on Tuesday at home.

Junior guard Braeden Schueller led Stratford with 14 points in Tuesday’s victory against Auburndale. Seniors Devin Ulrich and Kaden Griesmer added 10 points each. Griesmer paced the Tigers with 16 rebounds against the Eagles.

Senior center Zack Seitz and senior shooting guard Camden Daul are the Tigers’ returning starters this season from last year. The team lost starters Jake Skroch, Cody Miller and Max Vanderhoof to graduation in spring.

Camden Daul is Stratford’s leading scorer thus far this season by averaging 12.8 points per game. Junior guard Ashton Wrensch is second on the team in scoring by averaging 11.8 points per game, while senior point guard Caden Bruesewitz is averaging 8.8 points per game.

Stratford head coach Curt Schmidt, who is in the midst of his 18th season at the helm, said the Tigers are relying on Daul to be their team leader this season.

“We are looking forward to big things for Cam; we expect him to have a good year,” Schmidt said. “We expect him to be a good leader and to make the other players around him better.”

Kaden Griesmer currently leads the Tigers in rebounding by averaging 7.2 boards per game, while Daul is second on the team with 5.2 rebounds per game. Bruesewitz paces Stratford in assists, by averaging 6.2 assists per game while Daul is averaging 3.2 assists per game.

Coach Schmidt certainly believes his squad has the talent to win the Marawood South Conference this season. Edgar won the conference last year. He outlines his team’s strategy on the court this season.

“We want to be efficient on offense by taking care of the ball and hunting down the best shots our team can make,” he said. “Defensively, we want to continue what we have always done in our program and that is to play great defense.”

Bill Knetter is Stratford’s JV1 coach and Derek Austin is the JV2 coach this season.