Kee boys basketball team to benefit from seven returning veterans
2018-2019 Kee boys basketball team returning letterwinners ... Left to right - Front row: Lewis Peters, Cade Rasque, Dylan Walleser, Josh Walleser. Back row: Ryan Whalen, Jacob Berns, Shawn Wild. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook.
The Kee boys basketball team will look to reap the benefits of veteran experience as seven returning letterwinners return for Coach Pat Sullivan for the 2018-2019 season. That veteran crew includes at least four of the Hawks’ top five contributors in every statistical category from last winter’s campaign that yielded a 4-19 overall record, including a 3-10 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed Kee in ninth place in the final 10-team UIC standings.
Those seven returning letterwinners include five seniors in Jacob Berns, Dylan Walleser, Josh Walleser, Ryan Whalen and Shawn Wild, with juniors Lewis Peters and Cade Rasque also returning with varsity letterwinning experience. “I look to them to have a winning attitude, to pick each other up when we’re down, to keep working when we’re up, to compete every day in practice, and to set the tone for the entire program,” Coach Sullivan said of his letterwinning returnees.
That veteran crew leads a list of 23 total players in the high school program from freshmen up through seniors. It is those book-end grade levels that feature the highest number of players, as six seniors and 11 freshmen make up a vast majority of this season’s Hawk hoop program.
“There’s five other players who could see significant minutes this year at the varsity level, including freshmen Dalton Dibert at point guard, Damon Weber at shooting guard and Nick Buege at forward, along with sophomores Mat Gruber and Chris Wagner, both at forward,” Coach Sullivan offered. “This will be the first year since I started coaching here where we’ll have two point guards at the varsity level. This will allow Josh Walleser to play the shooting guard spot from time to time. I think we also have some good options at shooting guard, so I anticipate our shooters being much improved from last year.”
The Hawks were slated to get their 2018-2019 campaign underway Tuesday, November 27 at South Winneshiek as part of a girl/boy varsity and junior varsity quadrangular event. Kee will do the same this Friday, November 30 at Postville before opening its home season Tuesday, December 4 with Clayton Ridge.
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