Tri-County Area boys' basketball teams emphasize strengths this season

Tri-County Area Prep Boys Basketball Preview

As the 2023-24 prep boys' basketball season gets underway, Tri-County Area teams plan on doing what they do best and hope the rest catches up by March.

For Osseo-Fairchild, currently 4-2 overall, that means emphasis on fast play and fast breaks. The Thunder return quite a few lettermen from last season's 14-11 team (10-4 in the Western Cloverbelt) including the Korgers, Brody and Tyrggve, Drake Swett, Lucas Frase, Jack Steinke and Spencer Osmonson while graduating Ashton Oliver, Braeden Metzler, All-Western Cloverbelt Conference player Brody Seefeldt and Chase Insterness. This season's Thunder squad has speed and depth to place up-n'-down basketball.

"We want to play fast but we have to play smart too." O-F head coach Tim Popple said. :"We have to make the right decisions at top speed and that's not always something we've been consistent at. If we improve throughout the season we'll have a good squad.

For Fall Creek the emphasis on paper was their size as they have four players on varsity 6-5 or bigger led by returning all-conference players Bo Vollrath (WCC Player of the Year as a sophomore and junior) and Isaac Steinke. But the Crickets have been without Vollrath since the start of the season due to injuries and other injuries have shaken up the line-up as well, especially one that had to replace all-conference guards Leo Hagberg and Ben Kelly and wing player Jeff Ritger from last season's regional championship team which finished 22-5 overall. Thus a struggle so far with a 3-3 record after lofty preseason rankings.

"We have the potential to be a very exciting team with returning size and experience," FC head Rick Storlie, now in his 39th season coaching hoops in Fall Creek. "But all the pieces haven't been together at once and won't be until mid-January at the earliest and its affected us. Hopefully we can perservere until then, have players gain experience in different roles, deal with adversity and emerge stronger as a team when we are at full strength."

That strength has to come from players such as Seniors Jake Wathke, Brian Birdsall, Mason Youngquist, Tyson Flottmeier, Conner Fahrman, Ethan Frederick and Kyle Castro will give Fall Creek a senior-heavy team. Junior Nathan Kurtz had a good year last season and will make a strong push to play big time minutes.
This will have to be done in the in the midst of a tough schedule for the Crickets. Fall Creek will play three nonconference games on neutral courts this year. The first will be against Prescott at UW Stout in early December. Prescott will be a very tough opponent out of the Middle Border Conference. In January, the team will travel to the La Crosse Center to tangle with highly ranked G-E-T. The Redhawks, a Division 3 team out of the Coulee Conference boast one of the state’s highest scorers. In February, the team will travel to Wisconsin Dells to tangle with Dairyland power Melrose-Mindoro. They will be one of the tallest teams the Crickets will have to play all season. Other tough nonconference opponents will include Elk Mound, Durand, Altoona, Whitehall, Augusta and Mondovi. Nothing will be easy for the Crickets as Bloomer and defending champ Chippewa Falls McDonell are considered the teams to be beat in the WCC.

Augusta (1-4 overall) is leaning on effort to lead them at the beginning of head coach Byron King's first season with the Beavers. AHS returned just a handful of lettermen while losing All-Dairyland Conference player Drew Jacobs and the team's leading scorer Brennan King to graduation from last season's 5-19 ballclub along with letter-winners Levi White and Logan Barnett. Back are juniors Cashton Leslin, Kenny Kloss,and Spencer Pilgrim along with sophomores Noah Schroeder and Beau Harmer.

"the kids have done everything we a coaching staff have asked and they've played hard in every game, even if its a blowout loss," King said. "That's important to establish early on and hopefully by March the skill level with be there with the effort and we can have a solid season both overall and in the league.

Whitehall has won the last three Large Dairyland titles and is a favorite again along with Melrose-Mindoro as Coachrane-Fountai City switches from the Large to the Small Division.

Eleva-Strum (0-4 overall) won just two games last season (1-14 in the DC) and still searching for its first win in '23-24. Returning to the Cardinals this season to the E-S line-up are seniors Carter Gunderson, Jake Bjerke, and Alex Anderson. The Cardinals will also add Jovanny Stevens while Ty Fjelstad, and Brody Hanson will have much more significant roles. Lettermen who graduated were Dalton Krupka, Bradyn Olson, and Nick Olson.

Many of the aforementioned players took part on Central's Dairyland and regional-winning baseball team and head coach Paul Janson hopes both their athleticism and winning attitude can carry over to a better season in '23-24.

"We have multiple college baseball players, and athletes that are all conference in other sports," Janson said. "However, we have lots of new people playing much more significant roles and it will take time to sort everything out. We have good kids and good athletes. We need to be competitive with the best teams in our conference and our regional and that means making a big jump in the win column."

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