Members of the West Fork boys basketball gained a lot of valuable varsity experience in their first year of consistent play following the departure of seven seniors from last year’s squad. Under the leadership of Head Coach Abe Maske in his first season, the Warhawks concluded the year at 11-12 overall.
The Warhawks were led into battle by six seniors, including Ashyr Wiseman, Xavier Haller, Trevor Despenas, Cannen Vold, Nolan Schreckengost and Koby Harley.
Maske highlights the strides made by some of the seniors.
“Both Ashyr and Xavier have grown tremendously as athletes, as basketball players, as leaders, as scorers, as overall floor generals. I think their best years are yet to come if they were to choose to move on,” says Maske. “Nolan, another senior, came in as a good sharp shooter, but more importantly, a strong body and probably one of our strongest rebounders. Cannen, as the fifth senior that started, he works extremely hard, has always worked extremely hard, is a very, very smart and bright kid. He came in, I thought worked hard through the season and really did a lot of what we asked him to do.”
Haller, Wiseman and Shreckengost were all recognized as Top of Iowa all-conference honorees. Wiseman paced the team with 16.4 points per game. Haller was the second leading scorer with 13.4 points per game, leading rebounder with 7.6 boards per game and added a team leading 65 steals. Schreckengost had the top three point shooting percentage at 33.3 percent.
Maske on the talent pool coming up ready for their shot at minutes and offseason work.
“Sitting in our ninth, 10th, 11th and our eighth grade coming in for next year, there is a plethora of talent. The fun part’s going to be working through that talent and the kids stepping up and working hard to put themselves into positions to hopefully make the floor, to play quality minutes for us at any of the three levels. Then this summer, we’re gonna get after it. We’re gonna get after it in the weight room. We’re gonna get after it on the floor with skills and drills. Getting up and down the floor. Then going to various team camps and tournaments, to try and work on transferring those skills that we’re improving, onto a game floor situation.”
West Fork is projected to return 10 players next season.
