OnFocus Season Preview
Coaching staff:
Garrett Rau: Head Coach
Marlin Pogodzinski: JV Coach
Dillon Novak: JV2 Coach
Randy Rau: Varsity Assistant
Key returners:
Blake Bargender: Sr
Evan Reis: Sr
Noah Schraufnagel: Sr
AJ Brodhagen: Jr
Grayson Totzke: Jr
Payton Schrieber: Jr
Key newcomers:
JV Castillo: Sr
Irvin Aguilera: So
Koren Decker: So
Conference outlook:
Being new to the conference this year, I don’t know much about what people have returning. Prentice has a very talented, and young, group. Athens is the returning conference champion, with some very skilled players coming back. Rib Lake is the most experienced group and should be a tough team to beat. I don’t know much about Phillips and Chequamegon. The south is always extremely difficult, with Marathon and Auburndale being state ranked teams leading the way in that half of the conference.
Keys to your success this season:
Some keys for us this season will be our ability to create defensive pressure. We will need to get out on the break a bit to help us score with some easy baskets in transition. The more we can turn people over, the better off things will be for us. The other way for us to get out on the fast break will be to get defensive stops and rebounds. I think limiting teams to one possession is also going to be a very important thing for us to do. Offensively, we are going to have to share the basketball and let our offense work to help create some easy looks at the rim in order to be successful.
Behind the scenes: Who are some of the people that help your program succeed?
I have been blown away by the support here at Abbotsford so far in my time. The administration has been great, led by our superintendent Ryan Bargender, our principals, Melissa Pilgrim and Abbey Frischmann, along with our school board. From a basketball standpoint, Jake Knapmiller has done a great job with our strength and conditioning program, and Brett Nelson has been great to work with helping me with all of our social media graphics and updates. Our middle school coaches, Janalee Knapmiller and Ethan Kramas, have also done a great job helping out the program. There are so many other people I could list, but I would run out of space.
Coach’s comments: anything else you’d like to share?
Thank you to everyone for their support so far. I look forward to seeing you all at some of our games. Go Falcons!
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2023-24 Area Conference Schedules: Conference and Team Links
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
