19-20 First Look: Waconia
The Waconia Wildcats play one of the toughest schedules of any team in the state, especially at the Class AAA level. This year Waconia’s expectations are high. Moving On: The Cats lost five of their top guys including three starters…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe Waconia Wildcats play one of the toughest schedules of any team in the state, especially at the Class AAA level. This year Waconia’s expectations are high.
Moving On: The Cats lost five of their top guys including three starters to graduation. Sam Nelson, Ryan Biehn, and Alec Olson were all 6-foot-1/6-foot-2 guards/wings that didn’t handle the ball much but they did all score 6.5 to nine points a game. That’s of course valuable but their lack of ability to handle put PJ Hayes on the ball. The Cats also lost Hunter Swanson and Parker Althaus to graduation up front.
Returning Starters: PJ Hayes and Connor Schwob. Hayes scored 24 a game last year and that was with him handling the ball handling duties as well. In the summer the Cats had some younger players playing lead guard allowing Hayes to be on the wing. It’s tough to know for sure where Hayes will be, but either way this is a 25 point per game scorer that could have a huge season. Schwob scored 11 a game as a junior and should boost that number in a big way with his activity, skill, and ability to play a couple spots. As far as top guos go, this pair could be on the underrated side.
Reserves Playing a Bigger Role: Six-foot-4 post Eric Groeneveld gave the team three scores a game a year ago and now he will be a senior helping Schwob and a couple others give Waconia a tough frontcourt player. Eric is 225 pounds and will be one of the stronger players in the league (a solid football recruit) this year.
Potentials from the JV: The experienced names to watch from the JV are 6-foot-3 senior Carter Kienholz, 6-foot-6 senior center Sam Deadrick, and six-foot junior guard Ryan Anderson. Kienholz saw some time on varsity last winter, Deadrick gives the Cats their biggest upperclassmen, and Anderson is one of the players they are hoping can handle the basketball. Six-foot-2 shooter Ryan DeLange can certainly help with his touch. Two other names to watch are sophomore big Spencer Swanson and freshman guard Wally Wisniewski. Swanson is strong with soft hands and feet while Wisniewski has a toughness and steadiness to his game. Both Swanson and Wisniewski played some good minutes with the varsity summer team.