This year’s edition of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Boys Basketball is youthful and lacking experience. That’s what happens when you graduate nine seniors from last year’s squad. “Nine through 12 we only have four juniors and seniors combined, so we are young,” acknowledged Hawk head coach Naet Hoaglund, who will again be assisted by Tom Lidiak.
The seniors on the team are Zac Pearson, Bradley Van Beek and George Vargas. The junior is Jayden Leth. The freshman contingent of Kolby Douma, Grant Kunzman and Brody Meendering joins sophomores Alex Billings, Josh Cruz, Carter Dolphin, Issac Schierholz and Lawton Schiphoff. “Lawton Schiphoff and Isaac Schierholz were the only two that saw any varsity minutes last year,” noted Hoaglund. Schierholz will not be on the court in the early going due to an injury suffered during football season.
“With guys that haven’t played a lot together the challenge is finding out the different roles that have to be fulfilled and seeing what guys are going to step into those roles,” said the coach. “We first look at what each kid’s strengths and then limitations are before determining what we can run. That’s where we’ll start. Are we a man team? Are we a zone team? Are we offensively pass, screen away, get a lot of shots or maybe the more times we pass, the more chances of turnovers so we’ve got to go more aggressive and first shot we see, we’ve got to take. So you kind of get a feel for what kids can do with the open gyms in the spring and summer. Then you start to tweak it a little bit and kind of find things that are going to fit each individual’s strengths and try not to ask them to do something that they’re not capable of. And then just trying to piece it together to create a system. Some of our stuff last year we can keep. We’ve also got to add some different aspects because we don’t have the players or experience that we had last year. We’ve got to find that balance of getting them in their role that they’re going to best be able to help the team.”
Hoaglund admits the task seems daunting but there is enjoyment to be found in the challenge. “The fun part of it is how can we manipulate things to get guys to succeed and then when they do succeed, celebrate those successes,” remarked the coach. “When you step back and look at the whole situation, it’s not as daunting because maybe the expectations aren’t there. You can just focus on getting better each night and just playing really hard.”
HMS is not a particularly long or tall team. “We’re not as long defensively,” noted Hoaglund. “We’re going to have to be more disciplined jumping to the ball and being where we need to be when the ball gets to where it’s going. Those things are crucial if we’re going to have any success. It’s going to come from hard work and effort. We’re going to have to be scrappy.”
The Hawk head man knows the Hawks are going to have to prepare and work hard to hold their own on the boards. “Rebounding is something that’s very important to us,” stated Hoaglund. “You look at the last three years, the two guys that have led aren’t here any more. They got a lot of their rebounds just because of how big they were and how athletic they were. It wasn’t necessarily their technique. What we’re going to have to rely on is to get the technique down. If we’re going to get rebounds we have to box out. We have to get body on body because we don’t have the size to just go up and get it.”
Hoaglund talked about the number of players he will likely rotate in and out during games. “I think I’m comfortable right now with eight guys that could be in the rotation and consistently be in the rotation,” offered the coach. “I think there’s a pretty clear line from eight to nine. And those eight, I’m not counting Isaac in there. I would say there’s eight in the rotation right now and there’s probably a definite cutoff after that.”
The coach was asked to handicap this season’s War Eagle Conference race. “I think there’s a couple clear favorites in the conference: Remsen St. Mary’s and I think South O’Brien will be up there,” he said. “I think MMCRU, with who they have returning from last year and based on what everybody else has back and what they’ve lost, I would see them competing at the top tier. They’ve got some athletes and most of their really good players were young last year – freshmen and sophomores. Gehlen lost a lot. West Sioux was about like us last year, all seniors. Hinton’s one of those where they could potentially. George-Little Rock, coming from the Siouxland, I think they were mostly juniors last year. They could be that dark horse if they put it all together.”
Hoaglund reiterated that there is a finding-out process underway as the Hawks prepare for the season. Said the coach, “Who’s going to take the majority of the shots? Who’s going to score the ball for us? Who’s going to be our guy who gets after it on the defensive end, that really makes the other guys work?” However, Hoaglund has seen one thing for certain, noting, “These kids aren’t intimidated. They don’t care who they’re playing, they’re going to play hard, they’re going to get after it and they’re not going to back down, which is awesome to see so far.”
Added the coach, “Our ultimate goal is that we want to be playing the best basketball by the end of the season.”