Winter Sports begins this weekend for L-N High School

If you judge the high school year by its sport's seasons, the 2021-22 school year is about one-third of the way over. Football and volleyball and cross country are now in the history books and for most high school students, basketball and wrestling season are about to begin.

For L-N students the basketball season begins this Friday and Saturday with home games with Red Cloud and Thayer Central.

Coaches Andy Peterson for the girls and Decker Brown for the boys have had two weeks and an exhibition game with Sandy Creek as their introduction to the basketball seasons.

A brief breakdown for the beginning of the season follows:

Boys' basketball: The team lost seven seniors from last year's team, but will have the services of the top two scorers returning for this year. They are Krayton Kucera and Logan Menke.

The 15 players on the 2021-22 team are down five from last year, but this year's team has ten of the 15 players are listed as six foot or taller. Three players are listed as 6'3" this year. In addition, Junior Toby Kotinek returns to the squad after missing last year with an injury.

The boys step down from Class D-1 this season and are classified as a D-2 team. They will play in a sub-district tournament next spring with Deshler, Giltner, Hampton and Harvard.

Team members and heights are as follows:

Seniors: Theo Kathman 6'2", Logan Menke 6'3", Wyatt Brockman 6'1".

Juniors: Devyn Zikmund 5'7", Toby Kotinek 6', Krayton Kucera 5'10", Erik Wheeland 5'10", Tyson Kotinek 6', Keaton Mazour 6'1".

Sophomores: Bayln Bargen 5'7", Clay Williams 6'2", Connor Janda 5'11", Nolan Ostdiek 6'3".

Freshmen: Wyatt Baker 6'1", Sawyer Cox 6'3".

Head coach for the boys team is Decker Brown, assisted by Preston Hild and Ramsey Hunt.

Girls: The girl's team also has 15 players listed on the roster for 2021-22. The girls lost four seniors from last year's 10-14 team.

The leading scorer and rebounder graduated last year, but this year's team will have the services of the next several scorers and rebounders return for this season.

The team will have a lack of height again this year as the two tallest players are listed as 5'9" and one of them is injured to start the season.

The girls play in Class D-2 again this year, and looking ahead to the end of the season, the girls play in the sub-district with Franklin, Silver Lake and Wilcox-Hildreth.

The girl's team and heights are listed as following:

Seniors: Kylie Beard 5'9", Elsa Jorgensen 5'5", Emma Epley 5'7", Aleah Heikkinen 5'8".

Juniors: Katelyn Mazour 5'6", Emily Troudt 5'7".

Sophomores: Sydney Biltoft 5'7", Bailey Ceder 5'6", Riley Funk 5'9", Jessica Sole 5'5", Danyelle Church 5'7".

Freshmen: Claire Himmelberg 5'7", Addison McCloskey 5'4", Hanna Skinner 5'7", Kara Menke 5'8".

Head coach for the girls team is Andy Peterson, assisted by Greg Kucera.

The 2021-2022 L-N Raider Basketball Schedule is as follows:

Dec. 3 – Red Cloud, home

Dec. 4 – Thayer Central, home

Dec. 10 – at Franklin

Dec. 11 – BDS, home

Dec. 17 – at Friend

Dec. 21 – Shelton, home

Dec. 28-29 – Holiday tournament at Hershey

Jan. 4 – at McCool Junction

Jan. 6 – Giltner, home

Jan. 11 – Rock Hills, home

Jan. 14 – at Kenesaw

Jan. 15 – Axtell, home

Jan. 18 – at Deshler (Girls only)

Jan. 20 – at Diller-Odell

Jan. 21 – Parkview Christian, home

Jan. 25 – at Blue Hill

Jan. 28 – at Silver Lake

Jan. 29 – Feb. 5 – TVC tourney

Feb. 8 – at Harvard

Feb. 11 – Superior, home

Feb. 18 – at Deshler (Boys only)