Colfax boys basketball team looking to improve on last season’s finish

By Cara L. Dempski

COLFAX — Last year’s Viking boys’ basketball squad finished fourth in the Dunn-St. Croix with an 8-6 conference record and were 12-13 overall.

So it is no small feather in coach Garrett Maas’ cap that his team made it farther in tournament play than the Vikings’ nearest conference neighbor and the Dunn-St. Croix boys’ basketball champions, Elk Mound. Colfax made it to the WIAA Division 4 regional championship game before bowing out to Eau Claire Regis, 66-51.

“Our goal is to be in the top half of the conference and compete for a championship,” Maas said of this year’s team.

Jarrod Rudi, Brett Prince, Andrew Harmon, Isaac Lee, Alex Knudson and Kedar Davis all graduated this past May and left plenty of spots open for aspiring forwards and guards. The entire group held down leadership positions at the top of the Vikings’ scoring and rebounding statistics during the 2015 – 2016 season. Prince and Davis were both awarded second team all-conference honors in their final season of play.

Aliymu Davis and Jacob Larson return to this year’s team. The letter winners, both seniors, were mixed in with last year’s graduating class at the top of the team stats boards.

Davis managed a 10.5 point-per-game average which included 28 three-pointers over 25 games last season and pulled down 114 rebounds. Aliymu also had 49 steals and 46 assists.

Larson topped the rebound statistics for last year’s Vikings with 233 grabs in 25 games, more than double that of Aliymu’s tally which was second most on the team. He also scored 179 points in those games for an average of 7.2 points per game.

Matthew Reisdorf, another senior, returns to the court this season after an injury kept him from playing more than eight games last year. Maas sees the player as someone who has a great deal of potential.

Juniors Treyton Teige, Adam Pretasky and Marcus Reisdorf are also players Maas sees fitting well into his program based on their skill and potential. Last season, Teige scored 11 points in four games and grabbed five rebounds. Pretasky picked up minutes in two games, nabbing a rebound during one. Reisdorf had some time on court last season that will help him out this year.

Other juniors looking for some playing time in 2016-17 are Jacob Jensen, Taylor Sarauer and Jon Welk.

Sophomore George Scharlau earned a varsity letter last season as a freshman. In his first varsity season, Scharlau played in 22 games, averaging 1.9 points per game. He proved effective for the team by pulling down 43 rebounds and providing 17 assists.

Scharlau is joined by a small host of classmates that will be vying for playing time including Luke Heidorn, Jackson Hellmann, Thomas Jensen, Wyatt Olson, Zach Paffel, Trevor Rothbauer, Tate Russell and Ben Thompson.

The incoming freshmen class accounts for over one third of this year’s full team roster of 32. The  14 newcomers getting their first taste of high school basketball are Noah Albricht, Boden Bergeson, Marcus Drees, Tyler Hallquist, Trey Hovde, Ed Hydukovich, Wesley Kallstrom, Cole Kiekhafer, Brady Lawrence, Zach Rindy, Bryce Schindler, Cole Seehaver, Isaac Taylor and Brad Thompson.

While Maas admits that not having a true point guard is a weakness for this season’s Vikings, he feels his team’s balanced scoring and rebounding will prove helpful. He also is hoping his team uses its collective heads during the season.

“We need to make smarter decisions and take care of the ball,” Maas stated.

The Colfax head coach sees defending champion Elk Mound as a top conference contender again this year. He said Mounders Dane Lew and Ben Lambele might be two of the most talented players in the Dunn-St. Croix.

Maas also named Durand and Spring Valley as top competitors in the upcoming season. Durand, the conference runner-up a year ago, returns a lot of athletes, plays tough defense and had the best junior varsity team in the conference last season. Spring Valley returns nearly its whole team and has one of the hardest matchups in the conference with Sean Borgerding.

Garrett Maas is in his fourth year as head coach of the Colfax boys basketball team. John Dickinson is the junior varsity coach, and Tim Devine coaches the c-team.

The Vikings will take on Cochrane-Fountain City on November 29 at UW – Stout before heading to Fall Creek on December 3. Colfax will take one more road trip to Durand on December 6 before playing their home opener on December 9 against Boyceville.

2016-17 Roster

Seniors: Aliymu Davis, Jacob Larson, Matthew Reisdorf.

Juniors: Jacob Jensen, Adam Pretasky, Marcus Reisdorf, Taylor Sarauer, Treyton Teige, Jon Welk.

Sophomores: Luke Heidorn, Jackson Hellmann, Thomas Jensen, Wyatt Olson, Zach Paffel, Trevor Rothbauer, Tate Russell, George Scharlau, Ben Thompson.

Freshmen: Noah Albricht, Boden Bergeson, Marcus Drees, Tyler Hallquist, Trey Hovde, Ed Hydukovich, Wesley Kallstrom, Cole Kiekhafer, Brady Lawrence, Zach Rindy, Bryce Schindler, Cole Seehaver, Isaac Taylor, Brad Thompson.