19-20 First Look: Mound-Westonka

<p>The build of the Mound-Westonka White Hawks continues. For the second straight year the Hawks improved by seven wins building to a 20 victory season. So what’s next?</p> <p><strong>Moving On</strong>:  Mound-Westonka only had one senior in their regular rotation last year. Guard Nicolas Phommahaxay was a good player but the loss of a single guy is a lot less to overcome than 97 percent of the teams out there.</p> <p><strong>Returning Starters</strong>:  The Whitehawks have four starters returning. The top two players on the team were often <strong>Jameson Sexton and Jason Speath</strong>. Sexton is a six foot guard that scored 15 a game while Speath is a strong and skilled 6-foot-2 sophomore that I would expect will play some wing on this smaller team. Speath had a good 15u season with D1 Minnesota Prospects and he scored 10.4 a contest last year as a freshman. Speath didn’t start much last year but played big minutes so we are just going to keep him with this group.</p> <p>The beauty of the Whitehawks is their depth of working parts. Six-foot-6 <strong>Connor Prok</strong> is crucial to the team as he was the only player on the team bigger than 6-foot-2 last season. Prok scored 3-4 times a game and this year they may need him to be a 10/7 a game guy as a senior. Stepping into the Nicolas Phommahaxay role will likely be junior <strong>Santiago Phommahaxay</strong>, a 5-foot-8 guard that scored three times a game as an underclassmen.</p> <p>The other returning starter is <strong>Logan Leonard</strong>, a 6-foot-2, 175 pound forward that like Santiago was on the floor to begin the game as a sophomore. Leonard scored 4.6 a contest and is currently a do everything player for the football team running the ball, catching passes, returning kids, and playing d-back. He plays a vital role to the team simply as a tough competitor.</p> <p><strong>Reserves Playing a Bigger Role: Calvin MacKall </strong>is a 6-foot-2, 165 pound forward who is now a senior and he and fellow senior post <strong>Isaiah Dempsey</strong> will provide frontcourt depth. I don’t know that the role they are playing will be much bigger as the only players that Mound-Westonka lost to graduation were guards but another year of experience will help both players. Dempsey is a 6-foot-2, 225 pound interior lineman type. Both MacKall and Dempsey bring toughness from the bench.</p> <p><strong>Potentials from the JV:  </strong>The one other guy to see a bit of time a year ago was now six foot junior guard <strong>Jamel Broadway</strong>. His 2018-19 was spent on the bench but with Thomas Miller and the older Phommahaxay graduated there could be room for Jamel or others to earn some time.</p> <p><strong>New to Town: </strong>The Mound-Westonka backcourt became deeper when <strong>Jayden Heimerman</strong> moved from Watertown-Mayer to the Whitehawks district. Jayden is a six-foot-1 guard that scored 11 a game last year as a junior.</p>