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Although they lost three starters to graduation, the West Central Area Boys’ Basketball team will be looking for another successful season as they return four of their top seven players along with a couple of promising newcomers. The Knights are coming off a 27-2 season where they were ranked in the state top 10 for the whole season last year, winning the Pheasant Conference championship with a perfect 12-0 record, the Sub-Section 6A South Championship, and finishing second to Henning in the Section Finals.
The top returners are 5’11 senior guard Grant Beuckens, 6’1 senior forward Tate Christenson, 6’3 senior center Brady Reeve, and 6’5 junior forward Ryder Staples. The Knights played seven player pretty interchangeably last year so all four of those returnees have plenty of experience in big games.
Other returning letter winners are Xander Bontjes (6’0, SR), Nathaniel Junker (5’11, SR), Cole Anderson (6’0, SO), Jacob Strunk (6’0, SO) and Isaac Kreft (6’2, SO).
“This team plans to compete with the top teams in both the Pheasant Conference and Section 6A,” commented Head Coach Kraig Hunter. “Keys to a successful season will be to stay healthy throughout the season and developing depth. Like the entire year of 2020, this season has a lot of unknowns. We have big numbers in both the sophomore and freshmen classes with a lot of players evenly matched in talent so we will see who steps forward by mid-season to see who can give us some depth on the varsity.”
Hunter feels Ashby and Hancock will pose the biggest challenge for the Knights in the South Sub-Section with several other teams in the mix as well.
“Our expectation every year is to compete extremely hard night in and night out and to play unselfish team basketball,” added Hunter. “Our strengths will be our experience and versatility.”
Bryan Kjesbo, Jon Nelson, Brad Westrom and Devin Nelson will serve as assistants to Hunter, who is entering his 25th season.