Wildcats boast plenty of talent

Gritty squad should be in all its games

By Casey Krautkramer

Edgar’s varsity boys basketball squad should be solid again this season, despite losing three senior starting players to graduation. There are plenty of talented Wildcats waiting in the wings for their chance to shine on the basketball court this season.

Dave Huss returns for his 10th season as Edgar’s head coach. His three assistant coaches have a total of 65 years of instruction on the Wildcats bench. Jim Heidmann has coached for 35 years, Tom Bauman for 21 years and Chris Trawicki for nine years.

“I am a very lucky guy to be surrounded by the great coaches that we have in the program,” Huss admitted. Edgar’s top returning varsity players this season are senior guard Justin Davis, junior forward Brett Baumgartner, junior guard Teegan Streit, junior guard/forward Karter Butt and sophomore guard Leyton Schuett.

Top newcomers to the varsity team whom the coaching staff believes could receive playing time this year are senior guards Ethan Sondelski and Avery Normington; senior forwards Brady Stencil, Dillan Yonker and Colin Mellenberger; junior forwards Preston Dahlke, Marcus Huehnerfuss and Mason Thornton and junior guard Kohlbe Weisenberger.

The Wildcats lost starting players Everet Brehm, Ashton Schuett and Ayden Weisenberger from last year’s squad to graduation.

“We have big shoes to fill as all three guys played an important part in our success,” Huss said. “We have several guys returning that started different games throughout the season last year including Justin Davis, Brett Baumgartner, Karter Butt and Teegan Streit.”

“Additionally, Leyton Schuett has emerged as a young player that played well last year as a freshman on varsity and is poised to take a big step forward this season. We are very excited about our team this year. We are unselfish, we play hard and we got some grit.”

Coach Huss expects the same out of his teams each season.

“Last year we had a good mix of older players with championship experience, but also quite a bit of youth as well,” he said. “I thought the seniors did a good job of taking the younger players under their wing and helping them along throughout the course of the season.”

“We played one freshman and three sophomores consistently last year. We are expecting these players to take a step forward this season, however, every year is a process. We have new players assuming new roles, so it may take us some time to acclimate and get adjusted. We will need our younger players from last season to assume a greater role in terms of scoring, rebounding and defending at a high level.”

Last year the Wildcats lost to a talented Marshfield Columbus Dons squad in a WIAA Division 5 regional championship. Coach Huss is hoping his returning players learned from the experience playing against a really good team in the regional final.

“I think the game last year at Columbus Catholic in the regional final was a really good experience for our younger players,” Huss said. “The speed, intensity and passion were at a higher level than in any game last season. It is what you expect during tournament time. I thought our guys competed and represented our program well. The outcome wasn’t as we hoped for, but there is no substitute for experience.”

“Hopefully we can use some of the experience from last season to help us this year. We played in several close, competitive games. We won some of them and we lost some of them. Our schedule is very competitive and we know that we will be in many close games. The ability to handle pressure situations, make key free throws, take care of the ball and defend at a high level in crunch time will be important to our success this season.”