Familiar faces

If there's one thing NRHEG boys' basketball coach Dan Schmidt can count on, it's optimism.

Schmidt feels the Panthers, 6-48 under his direction, can improve on last year's record of 3-24. The Panthers were 1-14 in the Gopher Conference.

 

Returning varsity athletes include seniors Aaden Hanna, Grayson Schaefer and Jase Knudson, and junior Hudson Chrz.

 

Also vying for varsity playing team will be juniors Owen Wayne and Gavin Lewison, sophomores Brendan Schmidt and Dominic Olson, junior Wyatt Tuttle, junior Deshawn Jones and sophomore center Lavon Lewison.

 

Graduated off last year's squad: Daxter Lee, a four-year starter; William Tuttle, two-year starter. 

 

So what does Coach Schmidt expect?

 

"We’re looking to improve as the season goes along, and hope to be playing our best basketball by the end of the season," he said. "We’ll be inexperienced, so I expect some bumps along the way. But we have a very smart team, with good chemistry, that

can make adjustments on the fly, we should be able to be very versatile on both ends of the floor."

 

Schmidt, again assisted by Aaron Gilliland and Tyler Schlaak, feels his team's strengths are in ball movement, defensive flexibility and attitude, and chemistry.

 

Their biggest challenges, according to Schmidt, are rebounding, scoring and inexperience at the varsity level.

 

"Knowing we’ll be young, we’ll be relying on the seniors to be strong leaders and willing to help the younger guys in the early stages of the season," said Schmidt. "We’ll also need some of those young guys to contribute from the onset. It’s going to be a complete team effort going forward, and I look forward to seeing the progress with this group. If we can rebound above expectations and find our groove on offense, I feel like we can be competitive. We have the desire on defense, so we just need to get the offense up to speed."

 

Schmidt sees JWP, Triton, Randolph and Blooming Prairie as the top teams to beat in the Gopher Conference, with Waseca, Belle Plaine, LCWM, Maple River and JWP leading the way in Section 2AA.

 

Dec. 3 at Triton, 7:15 p.m.

2024-25 NRHEG 

Boys’ Basketball

 

Dec. 12 vs. St. Clair, 7:15 p.m.

Dec. 13 vs. Randolph, 7:15 p.m.

Dec. 17 at Maple River, 7:15 p.m.

Dec. 19 vs. USC, 7:15 p.m.

Dec. 20 at LeSueur-Henderson, 7 p.m.

Jan. 3 at Kenyon-Wanamingo, 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 7 at WEM, 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 10 vs. Hayfield, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 14 at JWP, 5:45 p.m.

Jan. 17 at Blooming Prairie, 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 20 at LCWM, 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 vs. Bethlehem Academy, 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 28 at Medford, 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 30 at USC, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 3 vs. WEM, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 6 at Nicollet, 7 p.m.

Feb. 7 vs. JWP, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 11 vs. Blooming Prairie, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 13 at Mankato Loyola, 7 p.m.

Feb. 14 at Alden-Conger, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 17 vs. Tri-City United, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 20 vs. Waseca, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 21 vs. Medford, 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 28 at Martin County West, 7 p.m.

March 4 Section, TBD

March 6 Section, TBD

March 10 Section at Mankato, TBD

March 11 Section finals at Mankato, 8 p.m.