“It’s hard to teach rebounding; ….

“It’s hard to teach rebounding; a lot of times it just comes down to a want, wanting it more,” the Hornets’ coach stated. “Last year, Richard was one of the shortest kids on the team, and one game he had 17 or 18 rebounds in a game, just because he wanted it. It’s a hard thing to teach kids to keep playing after the shot goes up.”

The Cloverbelt-East, at least on paper, seems to be set up for one of the most competitive seasons that Flink has seen in his tenure. Last year’s champions, Columbus Catholic, are likely to field a team looking to go deep into the playoffs, coming into the season ranked first in Division 5, and Neillsville and Owen-Withee appear to have solid lineups as well. The Hornets seem to figure into that top echelon of teams as well, though they’re looking to take things one game at a time.

Their first challenge of the season came in the form of the Auburndale Eagles, which Colby hosted for their season opener on Tuesday evening.

The Hornets were the ones to oust Auburndale from the playoffs last year, but the Eagles would take the rematch. Colby held tough in the first half, generating offense through aggressive drives to the basket and opening up passing lanes because of it. The Eagles started to pull away as the half ended, however, taking a five-point lead into halftime. The visitors would continue to build on that momentum in the second half and what had once been a close game would get away from the Hornets, ultimately ending in a 73-55 victory for Auburndale.

Kaden Wiese led Colby with 15 points, followed by Caden Healy with 12 and Joe Streveler with 11. Tucker Meyer and Tevin Rue contributed seven points each.

Auburndale held an advantage over Colby from beyond the arc and from the charity stripe. The Eagles had eight three-point field goals compared to the Hornets’ three and made 17 of 22 free throw attempts compared to Colby’s six of nine.