by Parker Schlenker, GHS Blue Ink
With high hopes for the 2019-2020 season, the boys Blue Dragons basketball team’s expected outcome is unpredictable with such a young squad: new coaches, upcoming high schoolers, and new seniors.
While the coaches are not new to the program, they are filling in different roles.
New head coach Tad Heitkamp has tons of experience coaching, with 18 years under his belt. He has four years of junior high and 13 years of assistant coaching prior to becoming head coach.
New assistant coach Cory Buchholz will be going on his sixth year of coaching basketball. All previous years were served as a volunteer to the high school boys basketball program.
Along with coaches in new roles, players find themselves there too. The Blue Dragons have only one returning starter, Sophomore Dylan Kindt. Others have experience on the varsity court but will see a shift in their roles and playing time this year.
Both coaches stated that for the time being, the four seniors, Cole Skadsen, Hayden Olofson, Trey Buckneberg, and Lucas Fitzgerald, will be the captains.
With the four seniors bringing leadership to the team, Coach Buchholz and Coach Heitkamp both see the team coming together as one complete unit and can’t say just one or two players are the leader.
“We, as a team, are great at picking each other up and making sure that, from seniors down to freshman, everybody knows that they belong and we are here for each other,” Buchholz stated, and Heitkamp agreed.
Both coaches believe that the goal for the team is to learn to become one, and just become a better team through working on communication and overall teamwork. However, they also believe that if they achieve the goals they have set, they should have no problem having a winning record this year with a team that has as much skill as this one.
Coaches Heitkamp and Buchholz pegged teams to beat this year in the BEC as Sioux Valley and Baltic, because both teams have good upcoming players with experience playing varsity basketball.
The boys were able to showcase skills in a scrimmage last Thursday and have their first contest this Friday, Dec 13, at Tri-Valley. The sky's the limit for this young Blue Dragon team.
