Waukon boys basketball team returns four letterwinners for 2021-2022 campaign

The Waukon boys basketball team is coming off one of its best seasons in recent history this past winter and will return four letterwinning veterans from that campaign that ended with a 15-6 season record. Although four returning veterans can fill a large portion of a five-player regime that takes to the basketball court, that leadership foursome and this season’s supporting cast will have some significant holes to fill from the graduation of a six-player senior class that helped the bucket Tribe reach the 15-win mark for just the third time in the past decade and play to its best Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) record and team finish in well over a decade, all while setting some records along the way.

This season’s returning varsity letterwinners include a quartet of seniors in Braden Hemann, Patrick Hennessy, Lincoln Snitker and Braxton Stewart. They make up half of this season’s senior class which accounts for just over half of the 14-player varsity roster for the Indians.

“We have some great letterwinners returning this year, but we also have a great group of seniors with great attitudes,” Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann said. “We also have a good group of juniors coming in that are ready to step in to some leadership roles.”

That combination of players from the two oldest classes will bring with it its own combination of advantages to gain from and yet challenges to overcome. “We are going to have a strong and athletic team this season,” Coach Hemann shared. “We should be solid defensively and we have a lot of players with good ball skills. While we are very athletic, we will lack height this season with the majority of our roster at six-feet tall or less.”

Returning to pace that leadership role from both an experience and a statistical aspect will be Braden Hemann, a multi-year letterwinner and All-Conference selection for the basketball Indians. Hemann paced the Tribe last winter with his 302 points scored, 154 rebounds, 43 three-point field goals and 78.6% free throw shooting efficiency, and he finished second on the team with 65 assists and 25 steals, but those team-leading results will have to wait a bit to return to the court as Hemann recovers from a broken arm suffered during the football season this fall.

Hemann’s fellow classmates and letterwinning returnees each provided a spark in the starting line-up at certain points last season. Hennessy, Snitker and Stewart also rounded out the top five of certain statistical categories from last season’s campaign.

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