The Dike-New Hartford boys basketball team will have minimal ground to make up when it begins next season. Only one player who had significant varsity minutes will graduate.
Jayce Jensen will depart as the team’s only senior starter. The team’s steal leader and third-leading scorer provided many intangibles, according to Head Coach Alex Tagtow.
“He’s not necessarily putting up gaudy numbers, but we put a lot on his plate and he really did a lot for us this year,” Tagtow says. “Not off the floor very much, really playing all sorts of different roles, had to handle the ball and be the point guard, had to be all over the place. Just the impact that he had on our program, on our season is tremendous. So it’s gonna be a big loss, definitely a much bigger loss than I think the stat sheet would reflect.”
The Wolverines will bring back four starters, including leading scorers Colin Meester and Carson Costello. Tagtow is excited to have a veteran lineup next year.
“We generally play seven or eight guys most nights and to have all but one of those guys coming back is definitely cause for excitement going into next year. We were in a lot of situations that maybe were new for those guys, a lot of those tough road games that are one possession games with with two, three minutes left, that’s kind of new for all of these guys as juniors so having all that experience hopefully next year we can kind of build on that and just continue to grow, but definitely exciting coming into the year with that much experience coming back.”
The Wolverines went 12-12 and ended their season in the district semifinals.
