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Bulldog boys hit the court with little varsity experience

By Kelsie Hoitomt

BOYCEVILLE – The roster for the 2013 Boyceville boys’ basketball team shows a large group, but little varsity experience as one senior looks to lead this season.

The Bulldogs finished the 2012-13 season with an overall record of 12-13 and were 5-11 in the Dunn-St.Croix Conference with two Regional wins before losing to Unity in the third round.

The team was led by Michael Lagerstrom who was top scorer and leader in assists, but he along with Ryan Williams, Zach Klassen and Matt Leach are each gone from graduation.

This season it is senior Jordan Kuhn that takes on the role as team leader. He was the Bulldogs’ number two shooter last year with an 8.6 point-per-game (ppg) average. He also led the team in three-point baskets with 56.

Williams was the leading rebounder and second in assists for the Bulldogs last season, but his shoes look to be filled by junior Brady Schutts.

As a varsity player, Schutts was second in rebounding and was third in scoring with a 7.5 ppg last year.

The third leading rebounder with a 5.2 ppg was Mitch Leach last season, but due to an ACL injury, he will be out for the season.

Those who were assets last season and look to fill out the rest of the roster are juniors Justin Schultz, Jake McIntyre and Tyler Draeger.

Previous junior varsity players that look to have more varsity potential is junior Brett Boda and sophomores Buddy Hanestad, Hunter Anderson and Sam Hellmann.

“We have solid shooters and ball handlers and they are hard workers on the defensive end of the court. However, we are real young with only one senior on the squad and although these younger players competed well at the younger levels, we really lack varsity experience,” said head coach Jay Lagerstrom.

Coach Lagerstrom is entering his ninth season of coaching the boys’ basketball team. He shared the team’s goal is to focus on keeping turnovers down while getting shots off.

“We have been one of the better defensive teams the last few years, while still getting a lot of shot attempts. We want to make sure we have the ability with our lineup to not be one dimensional on offense, but be able to score from either inside or outside by what our opponent is doing defensively against us,” explained Lagerstrom.

According to Lagerstrom, this season the Bulldogs’ top competitors in the conference look to be Mondovi, Elk Mound, Spring Valley and Colfax who each return several players to their lineup.

The Bulldogs kick off their 2013-14 season this Thursday night (Nov. 21) with a home game against Plum City starting at 7:30 p.m.

Boys’ Roster 

Seniors: Jordan Kuhn

Juniors: Brady Schutts, Justin Schulz, Mitch Leach, Jake McIntyre, Tyler Draeger, Brett Boda

Sophomores: Hunter Anderson, Buddy Hanestad, Sam Hellmann, Jason Retzloff, Andrew Marshall

Freshman: Kyle Marlett, Dante Marlett, Kiel Anderson, Micadin Kahl, Brandon Malean