The Boys Basketball season officially kicks off with a game against Tomah on Friday, Dec. 5th. New coach, Shane Schmeling, is excited to get going and hoping for a successful season.
Schmeling might be new to the role of head coach, but he isn’t new to the West Salem basketball program. He has been the assistant coach for 3 years and knows most of the players so the transition is going really smoothly.
While Schmeling says the team is going to “run a lot of the same stuff we’ve run in the past when I’ve been assisting,” that doesn’t mean everything will be the same as last year. “We are going to focus more defensively than what we’ve had in the past,” Schmeling said. “We’re probably going to try to get the ball inside just a little bit more.”
Senior player Will Schmidt says, ” Obviously, I think our first goal is to win conference, and then get into playoffs with a good seed, and see where our season takes us.” Coach Shane Schmeling and Nathan Dillaber say their ultimate goal is to make it to state.
“It’s just all going to be a learning curve,” senior player Nathan Dillaber said. “I think throughout the season, we’re going to learn to play together and work as a team.”