Knights have first winning season in six years
Over the last five or six years winning has been a struggle for the Sandhills-Thedford boys basketball team. With more experience this year, the Knights were able to make the jump and finished with their first winning record since 2014-2015.
The successful season for S-T didn’t come without experiencing some adversity throughout the year. The biggest one was losing starter Parker Ballenger five games into the year due to injury.
“I am very proud of this year’s team,” S-T Coach Andrew Christen said. “This season was a step in the right direction from where we were at a year ago. This team was always willing to work hard and get better every day at practice! We did experience some adversity throughout the year: we started playing with hardly any crowd, then we lost a starter to injury 5 games into the season. Our players did not give up but instead fought through the challenges and came out stronger on the other side. I am really looking forward to next season.”
Milestones for this year’s team was a successful MNAC Tournament. They defeated Hyannis in a close contest in the first round, played tough with the eventual champions from Mullen, and finished the tournament off with the team’s second victory over Anselmo-Merna on the year in the consolation game to get third.
The team has a lot to be excited about next season, as they return Dane Pokorny who was great down low for the Knights averaging 16.5 points a game and 7.5 rebounds a game.
Graduating from this year’s team are Shaydon Anderson, Matthew Dailey, Tyson Stengel, and Grant Ahlstrom. All of these players put a good effort together in their final season to help S-T get back to their winning ways.
According to Christen what he will remember the most about this group is what these men have matured into over the last several years.
“I will remember two things specifically about this group of young men,” Christen said. “First, I will remember their hard-working attitude and secondly this group is full of polite and nice young men which made them easy to coach.”