Waconia’s Next Up? Spencer Swanson

<p>Waconia has traditionally been a basketball hot bed with a talented face of the program.  Who is the face of the Cats this winter?  [player_tooltip player_id="774810" first="Spencer" last="Swanson"].  </p> <p>Spencer averaged 16 points and nine boards a game as a junior and then had a fantastic summer playing with Wear Out the Net’s 17s.  Swanson’s consistent, high percentage play has led to an uptick in recruitment and a lot of respect from opponents. </p> <p>"I think the main reasons I started to gain popularity in the recruiting process stem back to my work ethic and coachability," Spencer told Prep Hoops.  "I am constantly trying to stay in the gym and the weight room no matter what time of year it is.</p> <p>"Coach Pat Hayes and Nate Bertsch were a big part of my success too. They helped figure out the best ways to make me better as a player and used those key things to push me. Another factor that got me to be a hot prospect was the AAU season I had. We played top competition where I was playing against D1 and D2 offered players and simply just out worked them."</p> <p>There were a few MIAC programs that were in early on Swanson and hoped they had an edge.  Those schools are there but unfortunately from them, several other programs are now in pursuit of Spencer.  </p> <p>"As of right now, I’m hearing the most from a lot of the MIAC such as Augsburg, Hamline, and St. John’s but I’ve also had some talks with a few NAIA schools. I think the next step in my recruiting process is just to wait because I am really looking for a few D2 offers sometime throughout the high school season."</p> <p>Waiting, it’s what we are all doing in America right now.  Waiting on... the election!  Waiting on, opportunity to play.  Will teams be able to play this winter?  Spencer hopes to play, and he hopes Waconia has the chance to have another great season.  </p> <p>"Hoping that we have a season, I am looking for our team to have a great season and hit somewhere in between the 14 or 15 win range," Spencer said. </p> <p>"If sections do end up happening, I would like to make it back to the section final and game and potentially go to state. The other main goals I have for this season is to just find ways to win the close games, push the other guys and try to be the best leader I can."</p> <p>Waconia lost [player_tooltip player_id="846122" first="PJ" last="Hayes"], [player_tooltip player_id="846136" first="Connor" last="Schwob"], and [player_tooltip player_id="955897" first="Ryan" last="Delange"] to graduation meaning three of the top four scorers are gone.  However, Swanson is joined by fellow senior Connor Behrens, senior big Ben Christians, and junior guard [player_tooltip player_id="958682" first="Wally" last="Wisniewski"] as returning talents and the group has played well in fall league.  </p> <p>"It’s been tough to get anything in through the high school right now because we are very limited and cannot even get open gyms started," Spencer explained.  "I have still been going to the community center five days a week getting shots up for about an hour and a half and also getting hour long lifts in. We are currently in the Breakdown fall league and it’s going pretty well as we are sitting at 6-0.</p> <p>"Our team is looking very solid right now. We are still a fairly new team because we have guys coming from all over. We had a couple of us that were on varsity last year, a couple of us on JV, one from sophomore, and even one that came from the freshman team. So we are still all learning how to play together and gain chemistry but we are all picking it up quickly."</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>