~courtesy of The Scranton Journal
The winter sports season has gotten underway with Greene County boys basketball facing Ogden on Monday and Perry on Tuesday.
Coach Chris Nelson and assistants Mark Renslow and Trey Tucker are getting the boys team ready for competition. Last year the Rams’ record was 7-16 overall, 4-10 in Heart of Iowa Conference action.
The starting team is senior laden with returning letterwinners Carter Morton, Nick Breon, Cael Fisher, Skylar Ripperger and Logan Kinsey with junior Zach Goff.
Coach Nelson has several newcomers to keep an eye on. They include senior Caden Lowmiller; juniors, Jaxon Warnke and Peyton Kinsey, and sophomores, Jackson Morton and Bryce Stalder.
Gilbert would be the favorite to win the HOIC title but Nelson thinks the conference as a whole will be very competitive. Gilbert has two of its top three scorers back in their lineup. They were conference runners-up behind South Hamilton.
“Even with Gilbert as the early favorite there really is no clear-cut front runner,” admitted Nelson. “I could see a handful of teams making a run at the title and I hope we can be one of those teams. Defensively is where it will all start for us and how well guys adjust to new roles.”
Nelson and his team have a number of goals for this season: a winning record, improve each day, play and compete as a team, positive assist to turnover ratio, allow 55 points or less each game from the defensive side, shoot 48 percent or better as a team from the field.
The season got underway Monday in Ogden, followed by Perry on Tuesday. The schedule gets tougher with South Hamilton Friday, Gilbert on Tuesday, Dec. 10 and North Polk Friday, Dec. 13.
It was a tough season last year for the Greene County basketball girls. The team has learned from their experience and look to improve on their 1-21 record this year.
Head coach Tyler Westhoff and assistant coaches Jeff Lamoureux and Adrianna Vargas will again lead the Rams.
Returning letterwinners are seniors Izzy Bravard and Kassie Lamoureux, junior Sadie Wilson, and sophomore Brianna Habben. Juniors Eliza Carlson, Maggie St. Clair and Autumn Villebro all join the varsity roster for the first time. Freshmen who have impressed the coaches so far are Alexa Peters, Ashlynn Hinners and Natalie Heupel, all of whom will see some varsity minutes this year.
North Polk, Gilbert and Roland-Story will again be competing for the Heart of Iowa Conference title. They were the top three teams in the conference last year.
Greene County’s goals for the season are to improve on where they finished last year, be competitive in every game, and gain valuable varsity experience for some of the underclassmen.
