Boys’ Basketball – By Philip Kaul, staff reporter 

 This year’s boy’s basketball team will be very different from last year. The Wildcats only return three of their top seven players from last season, and they return only two starters: seniors Mason Wedel and Joey Johnson. Despite their lack of experience, the team still expects to play well.

 “We should be competitive,” head coach Matt Rice said. “I expect us to be one of the better teams in our league.”

 One thing that will not change this year is they style of play that Rice looks for.

 “It will be a lot of the same things that we did last year,” Rice said. “We should play some good defense and have great shot selection. Those things will give us a chance to win.”

 Because of all of the departures, players such as juniors Ryan Stallbaumer, Isaac Lueth, Braiden Turner and senior TJ Crow should see much more playing time than they did last season.

 “We will have some different contributors this year [and] some new players out there,” Rice said.

 All of the new faces make this year’s Wildcats something of an enigma.

 “I’m not sure what [biggest strengths] will be this year. That is something we will have to find out and learn about ourselves as the year goes on,” Rice said.

 This season will be an opportunity for growth for the Wildcats but don’t expect a down year.

 “There are a lot of good teams out there in 4A this season,” Rice said. “It won’t be easy. But I think we have a chance to be pretty good this year.”

Girls’ Basketball – By Makena Jarboe, staff reporter

 The end of fall sports signals the start of the anticipated girls’ basketball season; the start of a season means a clean record and the opportunity to succeed.

 Last year the team went 11-10 and finished fourth in the Frontier League. The Wildcats closed out their season by winning their final four regular season games but then lost to Saint James in first round of Sub-State.

 After losing a handful of strong senior players the team has some work to do filling the empty spots that were left behind.

 “Last year we had seven seniors. This year we will have one, and that senior (Kayli Farley) wasn’t even on our team,” head coach Jim Bonar said.

 Bonar has high hopes for the young team. According to the coach some players to look out for are juniors Taylor Saucerman, Paige Williams and Megan Brasheres. The young team with little varsity experience will be expected to accomplish just as much as the year before.

 “Our goals are always to win league and I would really like to start out at Hays by getting at least one win,” Bonar said.

Wrestling – By Tim Mayfield, ads manager

 With the wrestling season having started on Nov. 14, new talent is being brought into the fold. However, some concern has been raised over the impact of losing Donny Parr and Brandon Vukas when they graduated last year. Both Parr and Vukas were significant contributors to the wrestling team last year.

 Parr and Vukas both placed first in league at their respective weight divisions. Parr went on to place second in State, and Vukas placed sixth.

 While the loss of Parr and Vukas is significant, senior Hayden Chandler may be able to fill the void. Chandler placed fourth at league last year and second at State in his weight division.

 While more wrestlers could turn out at future practices, 40 wrestlers went through weigh-ins.

 “The largest weight division is 106, I think we have six guys,” head coach Shannon Sawner said.

 Despite losing two superb wrestlers, many are optimistic about this wrestling season.

 “We’re going to get better, I’m going to tell you that every year. We’re going up hill. We’re like a shark, we don’t swim backwards,” Sawner said.