skip navigation

Hillcrest Boys Basketball (Season Preview)

By Craig Olson, 11/27/19, 4:45PM CST

Share

As Ryan Garvin moves from assistant coach to Head Coach at Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, he knows his has big shoes to fill with the retirement of Gregg Preston after 30 years at HLA.    He also knows his players after having worked with them over the past several years on the staff, and he has a solid nucleus of talented players returning for the 2019-2020 campaign.

The Comet team of a year ago finished 14-11 overall, but battled Section 6A and Class A State champion Henning down to the wire in a section quarterfinal game that ended up in the Hornets favor, 54-52.  They lost Sander Frustol, Gabe Preston and Nick Foss from that team, but also return five letter winners with plenty of varsity experience.

Seniors Thomas Zwiers (Post) and Jowell Seymour (Guard), and juniors Micah Foss (Guard), Joel Quam (Wing) and Zeke Ihrke (Guard) all return.

Garvin will be looking to senior Kaleb Swenson (Post) and sophomores Caden Fisher (Guard), Sam Brumfield (Guard) and Evan Gould (Guard) to step into varsity roles this season.

“We should have lots of depth at guard this year and we could be a quick team overall,” said Garvin.  “We will have to develop an inside game to compete in Section 6A.”

Garvin, who will be assisted by Donavan Rogness (Head Assistant), Andrew Stender (JV) and Caleb Lee (C Squad), says Ulen-Hitterdal, Henning and Parkers Prairie are the favorites in Section 6A.  In the Pheasant Conference he points to West Central Area, Hancock and Ortonville as the teams to beat, while the top challengers in the Little Eight Conference will be Parkers Prairie and Brandon-Evansville.