After two state championship wins in a row, the BVNW boys’ basketball team lost all five of their 2014 starters. The team this year consists of only three seniors, with the majority of the team made up of underclassmen.

Senior Dalton Schoen said he would like this year’s team to reach the same level of chemistry as last year’s team. He said that if the team can learn how to play well together on the court, the season should be very successful. Head coach Edwin Fritz agrees with Schoen, saying that the team will have rebuilding to do with the substantial amount of new players. He said the whole team has to be completely committed in order to do well this season.

“We are in a good position because we have some really good young players,” Fritz said. “We are going to get the new guys playing pretty well and we will have some good teams. Our kids are pretty committed to playing. The team really wants to be good so they are working really hard.”

Having lost the majority of his players, Fritz said his strategy is to have a successful season is to have the players work on their defense. Since the team has only played one game this season unlike the last year’s team playing multiple seasons together, Fritz said practice will make the team realize how to play off of each other’s talents.

“We are looking for good teamwork and being able to make plays for other people,” Fritz said.   “They should be really unselfish. We have to play good defense.”

Every year the coaches adjust to the new players and talent level of each season. Fritz said because this team doesn’t have an advantage in height, rebounding will be a top priority.

“We aren’t very tall again this year so we are going to have to do a really good job of rebounding,” Fritz said. “They are going to have to do a better job of passing the ball around than they have in the past.”

Schoen said this year’s game plan is to outwork every other team because of this team’s disadvantage in height. Senior Hudson Moses said he thinks the game plan should be doing what the coaches tell the team to do.

“It’s a big part because we have a lot of young kids that aren’t used to this style of play,” Moses said. “It’s just going to be important that we do what they tell us to do and we will have the best shot at being good.”

As leaders of the team, Schoen and Moses said they intend to lead by example to show the younger and newer members of the team what is takes to be successful. Moses said pushing the younger teammates to do their best is a task that the leaders of the team must be able to do.

“We will have to pick them up when they are down because the young guys get down on themselves really easily,” Schoen said. “Especially with Coach [Fritz] getting on them; someone has to be there to pick them up.”

With an overall athletic team, Moses believes the team is doing well playing together and sticking together as a team. The young team is something that Fritz said he believes is a strength.