The North Butler boys basketball team finished the year at 8-15 after reaching the second round of Class 1A district postseason and falling to state tournament qualifier #4 (1A) Saint Edmond.
The Bearcats had two seniors rise to the occasion to help unite the team closer together, Top of Iowa all-conference honorees Ryan Austin and Kamdon Boos.
Head Coach Austin Guerrero on how Austin guided the flow on offense and taught future bigs.
“He led us in scoring and got our offense initiated for us. If he was having a good night offensively, things flowed and helped get our offense going for everybody. We worked the ball inside to him a lot. When he started the game strong offensively, our team started to play a little bit better offensively, moving the ball better, finding ways to get it inside so he could kick it back out for them for open shots,” says Guerrero. “His biggest overall growth in his four years and especially my two years taking over the program was his leadership. I think he’s leaving it in a good place for our younger group of bigs that we have coming up, that are very talented. I think he did a good job of pushing them every single day in practice. He’s handing the keys off to them, as it’s now their time to take over the program.”
Austin led the team in points (10) and rebounds (7.6) per game.
Guerrero on the adaptability of Boos and his mentorship of guards.
“I asked a lot out of him. I’d ask him to bring the ball up against pressure, help get us started on our offensive sets and movement. Then on the defensive side of the ball, he was always a guy that we’d look for to take their team’s best player. Some nights he was guarding a point guard, some nights he was guarding tough wings in our conference that can score a lot. Some nights he was even a little undersized for it. We would ask him to go play some fours and some fives, some big guys on the floor. He never folded, he never asked why questions. He just put his head down and did the best he could for us. That’s a guy we’re gonna miss in our program, especially for mentoring our guards, that we have coming up and our great young guards we do have. He was a guy that was pushing them every single day to lead by example.”
Boos was the team’s fourth leading scorer (115 points) and third leading rebounder (63 boards).
North Butler is projected to return 11 players next season.
