The Belmond-Klemme boys basketball team continued its climb to be a competitor in Top of Iowa West and beyond with a 12-12 finish this season, for their best record in the last 12 seasons.
Head Coach Justin Meyer on steps the team will look to take to continue to increase their level of play.
“Instead of letting the game come to us, we want to take the game a little bit more to others. I think that is a big thing that we want. Then to continue to work on our depth, to continue to work individually and as a team to grow,” says Meyer. “I think that we have a team that can go close to 10 deep next year. I don’t think there’s a lot of 1A teams or just teams in the area that can necessarily match up with that. I think that we can do a pretty good job of upping the tempo, bring a little bit more pressure full court, pressure half court, pressure on offense, pressure on defense to kind of wear teams down just with the depth and the quality that we have for guys returning. Their are some guys that I think can step up from JV into our varsity for sure.”
The Broncos are graduating two seniors, Toby DeBeer and Xavier Mercado and are projected to return 10 players from this year’s squad.
Meyer on three returners that help drive the team and the talent around them.
“Definitely led by those three, they set the tone for lot of things that we do, Griff, Brody, and Kysen. We’ve got a lot of talent that I think we can get some more out of, in terms of those other guys down the bench and those others that’ll be in and out of the starting lineup. We’ve got some exciting times going forward.”
Brody Heifner was the Broncos top scorer and rebounder with 15.2 points per game and nine boards per game. Kysen Lamb was the second leading scorer with 14 points per game. Griffin Paulsen led the team in 98 assists and 60 steals on the season.
Other returners that gained valuable varsity experience with minutes in every game this season include Cash Young, Braden Dougherty and Juan Ulises Medina.
