By Daniel Schoettler
Sports Correspondent
After losing its starting lineup to graduation, the Whitewater High School boys basketball team will depend on its size to begin the 2018 season.
The Whippets finished sixth in the Rock Valley Conference a season ago with an 8-10 record in league play and an 11-13 overall mark.
“Daniel (Fuller), Bryce (Parrish), Roberto (Navajas), Ben (Kloskey) and James Dedrick did a lot for us the last few years,” head coach Dan Gnatzig said. “Losing all of our starters definitely is a big loss, but I think we got a good group that is a year older and hungry to play.”
Whitewater returns four seniors in Hunter Martin, Benjamin Stoll, Dylan Pease, and Josef Gmur. They also bring back junior Cooper Pease and sophomores Jake Martin and Eli Kohl.
“Our strength would be that we have a lot of size, but we don’t have a go-to scorer,” Gnatzig said. “We’re going to have to spread that around and play good team basketball and look for mismatches inside.”
He doesn’t know where his team fits into the conference race, but Gnatzig anticipates it will be tough. He said that his team is the biggest in the league.
“It depends on how we can play, and we’re different from anyone with being bigger than any team in our league,” Gnatzig said. “We’re going to have to combat that with the other teams’ speed and athleticism.”
The Whippets open their season Tuesday against Delavan-Darien before taking on rival Jefferson on Nov. 29.
“I think every game is important and that we can use every game as a learning tool for the next one,” Gnatzig said.
