Warriors seek cohesion with untested roster

ABOVE: North Union High School Boys Basketball Team. Front Row (l-r): Donnie Stevens, Drew Henderson, Grady Madden, Caden Walders, Emmit Bierstedt, and Nick Mitchell; second row: Khael Jones, Richard Smith, Landon Manwarren, Carson Crouch, Drake Nelsen, Liam Eischen, Emory Potts. Back Row (l-r): Lane Bruhn, Jayden Hagedorn, Cole Nicoson, Greyson Colegrove, Dyson Wikert, Kael Vaske and Hunter Geitzenauer. Not pictured: Colin Kruse. Submitted Photo Courtesy of Kim Meyer, Editor, Bancroft Register

ARMSTRONG, IA – The North Union Warriors boys basketball team is hunting to find its rhythm under the eye of 11th-year head coach Alex Fisher.

Coming off of a 14-2 season which secured them a second-place finish in the Top of Iowa Conference standings, the Warriors are heading into the new season with a fresh roster and a lot of players getting their first taste of varsity action.

Preparing for the challenge ahead, Fisher is focused on player development and growth this year, citing a lack of experience on the varsity level as one of the biggest challenges for the team.

“Our lack of experience in graduating five starters,” said Fisher. “Then, having our six men off the bench injured right now. So basically bringing back zero minutes of varsity experience from our starting guys.”

Two veterans on the team, junior Khael Jones and classmate Drew Henderson, saw the court in varsity games last season. Both are bringing vital experience to the court this season as the team feels things out.

Due to injury, the Warriors are having to adjust to playing with a short bench at the moment. Despite that, they were able to secure a victory over West Bend-Mallard 66-48 in a nonconference match, which moved the squad to 1-0.

“There’s probably not a lot of the big minutes,” said Fisher. “But more so [focused on] just gelling together right now, you know, with some guys out for the injuries. We’re overcoming some obstacles. We basically started with two fives, Lane Bruin and Cole Nixon together.

“So trying to make that gel in the offensive end with three guard offense instead of four. And then overall just getting ready for the next level up for a lot of our JV guys getting ready to play at the varsity level.”

Fisher has faith in his squad as a shooting team and likes the outlook of the offense this season, citing the team’s ability to hit shots from beyond the arc.

“Overall, we’re a pretty good shooting team,” said Fisher. “I think we got at times four guys that can really step behind the line and hit threes. You know, we got good guard play with Cale Jones and Grayson Kovrov able to create a lot of offense for us.”

As with any young roster, the Warriors are focusing on developing the team as a unit and becoming the best squad they can.

“Our expectation always is just to get better every day,” said Fisher. “We’re just one day at a time, but big picture we want to hopefully get Drew [Henderson] and Grady [Madden] back healthy here after the break and then we’re hoping we can be right there in the top three, four of the conference mix.”

Fisher does acknowledge that the early injuries are impacting the roster but is confident is his team to get through and get right back into top form as players return.

“We know it might be a challenge with losing those guys right away,” said Fisher. “We’re already pretty thin. Maybe going to play seven guys deep with both of them and now we’re five or six guys deep right now without them. So we just got to kind of get through and to get some reinforcements coming and get those guys experience. But we’re hoping to make a nice run come January and February.”

The Warriors are ready for their next game against North Iowa Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the North Iowa Community High School Gym.