Coming off a season in which they placed fourth at the state tournament, the Cardinals boys basketball team is looking to replicate that success this season.
The team will look quite different this year as the Cardinals will try to replace six seniors from last season.
Head coach Kyle Deterding said he is excited to see how this year’s team will mesh together.
“We’re going to have to work hard. We lost four of our starters. We lost our sixth man,” Deterding said. “Logan [Sullivan] started and he returns, and Errol [Siemon] played a pretty important role. Then, a couple other guys played roles throughout the season, but not consistently. So, it’s going to be a different kind of group. So, we’ll see how it goes.”
Sullivan is entering his senior season as he comes off a year in which he received All-Frontier League First Team honors. Seniors Jerry Coble and Brayden Handley make up the rest of the team’s seniors.
Sullivan said it is a surreal feeling to be heading into his final season with the Cardinals.
“Time flies, man. It felt like a minute ago I was a freshman,” he said.
Sullivan said he liked what he saw from the team this summer and what it could mean for the Cardinals this season.
“We learned a lot of new things. I mean, if we play together we’ll be really good, I think. I think we’ll be able to get back to where we were last season,” Sullivan said.
The Cardinals traveled to Creighton University for a team camp and competed in an area tournament over the summer to go along with their weightlifting and conditioning, Deterding said.
Along with Siemon, juniors Connor Watson and Ty Deterding are expected to play bigger roles this year.
Siemon said it will be important for the juniors on the team to step up and be leaders as well.
“It’s just making sure people work hard in practice and not goofing off during serious times, and just keeping everyone on task,” Siemon said.
From a basketball standpoint, Siemon said the team has to make up for its lack in size by being one of the most physical teams in 4A.
Sullivan said one of his goals is to create more opportunities for his teammates because he is expecting to draw most of the attention from the Cardinals’ opponents this season.
No matter what, though, Deterding said he just wants to see the Cardinals get better with each game.
“It’ll be a work in progress. I’m guessing we’ll look different in February than we do in November, December,” Deterding said. “But hopefully the trend goes up and we’ll see where we are at the end of the year.”
The Cardinals will take the home court against Spring Hill for their first game of the season at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected]
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