There are only two returning starters for this season’s edition of HMS Boys Basketball, but they are two good ones to have back. Juniors Lance Berends and Kooper Ebel were both first team all-conference selections in the War Eagle last season.
The additional returning letterwinners are seniors Wyatt Borden, Mason Brinkman, Jordan Ortega and Brenton Thomas and juniors Travis Kamradt and Keevyn Jacobsma. Rounding out the squad are senior Keith DeBoer and juniors Ethan Diehm, Landon Elwood, Elijah Groeneweg, Lucas Kroese, Tyson Tessum and Trenton Vollink.
Last season Berends led the Hawks in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. Meanwhile Ebel topped the team in assists and steals and was second in scoring.
The beneficiary of those talents is new head coach Naet Hoaglund. The new head Hawk is a 2007 graduate of HMS and went on to the University of Northern Iowa where he graduated in 2012 with a background in PE, health, coaching and talented and gifted. In his seven years at Spirit Lake he led the high school girls program for three years and also assisted with high school football and boys basketball.
“I was fortunate enough to be able to transition back to the place that had a large part in who I am today and I’m so thankful that opportunity opened up because it’s great to be back in town with family,” said Hoaglund. “I spent last year coaching underneath Lester (Tessum) with the girls program. This opportunity opened up and looking at the crew of kids that we had and just being in the school and the support of the parents I thought that would be really cool to do. So I got the position and I’m so thankful that I did.”
Hoaglund is pleased to have his two linchpins back but he also noted several players who have looked good in practice in both their abilities with their basketball and their leadership skills: “Mason Brinkman, Travis Kamradt, and Trenton Vollink are perimeter players who get after it on the defensive end and compete hard every day in practice. It doesn’t matter the situation we put those guys in, they’re always going to give their all and that’s been awesome to see. Other guys like Keevyn Jacobsma and Wyatt Borden, who had limited varsity minutes last year, have looked good in practice, too. Keevyn is long and uses his length well on the defensive end being able to affect passes and shots. On the offensive end, he is able to play inside and out. That versatility can really help us. Wyatt is a kid who’s got great basketball IQ. He understands where the ball needs to go and how to space the floor offensively. Defensively he works hard to make sure he gets himself in the right positioning and his communication has been terrific. And then guys like Brenton Thomas and Keith DeBoer whose senior leadership is integral in helping this team get to where we want to go. They are guys who go about things the right way, are extremely coachable, and you can count on them to compete in everything they do.”
The boys program also has a new assistant coach in Jay Eilers, who was the players’ head coach on the football field. Hoaglund sees the transition to new coaching going well. “Fortunately for us we were able to get a lot of work done this summer with open gyms,” said the Hawk head man. “We played in the summer league and had some workouts this summer that really kind of built the foundation. And then as practice started some of those guys that were here for the summer stuff really showed some leadership skills and making sure everybody else was following suit and what the expectations were. As far as transitions, we’ve got a great group of kids. They want to be successful and do the right things so it’s been pretty smooth as far as the transitions go. How they treat each other is the coolest thing to see and that’s a reflection of their parents, this school and their upbringing.”
The number of players showing well in practice was making it difficult to establish the rotation when Hoaglund spoke before Thanksgiving. “Honestly, it’s wide open right now,” he admitted. “I’ve got a general idea but three through seven or eight are fairly interchangeable. Obviously you have the two that are going to be the workhorses to start things off, the two returners, but if we can find our role and our mesh together I think within the next week and maybe couple weeks we’ll have that figured out.” Factoring into that will be the style of play of the opponents HMS will be facing. Said Hoaglund, “The first five, ten games might be mixing it up and just seeing how it works and maybe we’re facing a quicker team and might only have one post in at a time. Maybe we’re looking to press a little bit more and have that one post in there. Maybe we’re really wanting to take advantage of a smaller team and we play a couple posts. So, a lot of it is dictated on match-ups.”
The coach sees pace of play as one of his team’s strengths. “I like to see them run the court hard,” said Hoaglund. “Whether it’s a steal or a rebound I want to see us get the ball up the court and immediately try to create an advantage and attack the basket. We have to do that with space, so spacing the floor.” He looks to counteract the double and triple teams on Berends by moving him outside. “He’s worked on an outside shot so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hit a few threes. I think that’s going to really open things up and allow us to do some different actions toward the basket and things like that.”
Hoaglund provided a further insight into his offensively philosophy. “I’m a motion guy. I have a few set plays here and there but it’s more them seeing the reads – we call it dominoes. The moment dominoes happens it’s a trigger and we have the advantage and want to keep the advantage so not letting the ball stick and things like that. We’re always hunting dominoes to create ROB shots which are Range, Open and on-Balance, those three things. So find the advantage through dominoes and hit a ROB shot.”
The coach also applauds his team’s attention to detail. “It’s how we set our cuts up and where the ball needs to go, coming off screens and things like that and just working hard. Kids want to work hard and that’s a carryover whether it’s from football or the weights this summer it’s carried over and it’s really, for this first week, been really fun to see.”
The Hawk coaches pick an area of fundamentals to focus on and really work on each day in practice. “A lot of times those are the things that are the difference in the game,” noted Hoaglund. “A basket here and not getting back in transition there, those little things add up and by the end of the game you do one or two of those things differently the outcome could change. So, the detail and the fundamentals, footwork and passing, how you’re finishing your shot, things like that, they’ve really been focused in on and that’s been cool to see.”
Hoaglund identified free throws as an area in need of improvement. “Looking back at last year’s games and last year’s stats, our free throw percentage has to get better and I don’t think we went to the line as much as we should have,” he said. “We shot 60 percent from the free throw line last year and that’s not going to cut it if we want to be the team that we want to be. So we’re really focused in on that.” The coach suggested that it was too many jump shots and too little aggression last season that caused too few free throw attempts. Said Hoaglund, “We think that if we’re the more aggressive team night in and night out that we can be really successful and we are being aggressive and taking it at them, making the defense have to switch and move and getting them to have to create space and guard space I think we can get to the free throw line more that way.”
Defensively, Hoaglund likes his group’s athleticism and ability to pressure the ball. He explained, “I think that really hurts defenses when there’s not a lot of ball pressure or you’re not doing any denying or things like that and the ball can get to wherever it wants to go on the court and the offense has that many more opportunities. So, defensively, we kind of want to shrink the floor a little bit, get them to a side, make them uncomfortable and work for everything. If they don’t have to work for everything, then we’re not doing our job.” He said making the opposing offense work for shots includes no uncontested threes and no straight-line drives.
War Eagle Conference teams that Hoaglund expects to again be tough this season include Gehlen Catholic, Remsen St. Mary’s and Unity Christian. He also likes West Sioux as an under-the-radar team that returns most of its scoring and noted that anytime the Hawks play South O’Brien it’s going to be a tight game. “It’s a tough schedule, but I think we can compete with all of them,” said the coach. “If we can walk away from each and every game knowing we left it all out there, there’s nothing in the tank, that’s success to me.”
The latest HMS head coach has taken a lot of things from a lot of different coaches during the basketball camps at which he’s worked but he cited three coaching influences in particular. Steve Waechter was his high school football coach and Hoaglund lauded his character and the types of things he tries to instill in you. “Just a stand-up guy that you love,” said Hoaglund. “The way he goes about things.” Hoaglund assisted former Spirit Lake head boys basketball coach Nate Loenser who went on to coach under Fred Hoiberg at Iowa State, the Chicago Bulls and now Nebraska. “Being around him and seeing how much he just loves the game and how much preparation it takes to scout different games and plan practices and things like that was another big influence on me,” remarked Hoaglund. A third person who influenced Hoaglund as a coach but even more as a person was Spirit Lake football coach Josh Bolluyt. “His ‘Built for Others’ philosophy really taught me that we are only at our best when are committed to see and bring out the best in others,” explained Hoagland. “He modeled humility, selflessness, high level character and emphasized personal growth. He really opened me up to seeing things from more of a process and journey based perspective rather than outcome, accomplishment, or reward based perspective.”
Hoaglund spoke further on the topic of success. Said the HMS head man, “Success, number one for me, is who (the HMS players) are as people off the court. The athlete, character and culture piece is the biggest part to me. It doesn’t matter how many games you win, if you’ve got players who are not being good people, then it really, in the long run, means nothing.” He added, “The biggest indicator of success, is if we’ve got a group of kids who are upstanding citizens, active in the community, they’re respectful in their classrooms, willing to volunteer and those kind of things. That’s my vision of success. And then that translates directly into the basketball court: hardworking, respectful, committed. I think if you lay the foundation, those things, we’ll be successful and that’s what success looks like.”