A new head coach will take over the Winside boys basketball team as game number one opens Friday.
The Wildcats will be made up of 14 on the team which also includes five freshmen during the 2024-25 season.
Dave Schmit will serve as a first year head coach and is the 7-12 Principal at Winside. Coach Schmit recently served as assistant principal at Twin River the previous two years but recently coached prior at Osmond as the head girls coach for three years and assistant boys for two years while also coaching boys basketball at Wallace for a year and two years at Dakota Valley in North Sioux City, SD.
Coach Schmit said he has also coached the Nebraska D-League in the summer for past three years and has thrown a lot of new things at them the first week of practice.
“They’ve done a really good job in being coachable and receptive to a lot of the new things,” said Schmit. “With our Jamboree you know we tried to put a little a bit of those into action against somebody else. Of course, it showed us what we got to work on but put a really good effort in so far.”
Joining coach Schmit is Eric Haase as an assistant.
Winside visited Tekamah-Herman on Tuesday, Nov. 26 for a Jamboree.
Coach Schmit added the team found out a lot about themselves against an opponent including building more confidence when shooting the ball.
“Our main focus going into practice we got to improve our rebounding,” Schmit added. “Kind of look at some things to take care of the basketball a little better. But overall, we competed decently in the first half and in the second half we just lost our legs. Our depth is going to be a concern but hopefully over the year we can build that.”
The team will be getting a player back in January due to an injury.
The Winside boys basketball team finished 9-12 last season.
The lone senior is Cameron Bilstein.
The Wildcats will be without their top two scorers from a year ago one due to graduation and another transferring out but will be leaning on their returning junior class led by Caleb Offner who averaged 6.6 points per game and led the team in rebounding at 6.6.
Junior Jayden Aschoff started a bit last year and another top returner coach Schmit highlighted was sophomore Tyler Paulsen while junior Matthew Gubbels is out with an injury until after the new year.
Coach Schmit mentioned he was most impressed by the leadership from the returners.
“The younger guys have really taken to that,” Schmit mentioned. “It’s kind of impressive to see them vocalize their confidence and put people in the right spots and be helpful that way. Yes, our upperclassmen are great leaders but we’ve also seen some underclassmen really take some ownership of what they’re doing.”
The Winside boys basketball season will begin on Friday, December 6 hosting Wynot. JV action will begin at 4 p.m.
Coach Schmit said after talking to a lot of the guys, they left a lot out on the court last season.
“I think that’s kind of a motivating factor going into this year,” said Schmit. “We consistently talk about how our goal is simply to be standing in PBA on championship Saturday and nothing short of that. It’s going to take a good effort. The kids have been willing to put the work in. As long as we get that consistency throughout the year, continuing improvement, we should be in good shape.”
Winside will then play five straight on the road leading up to the Summerland Holiday Tournament later this month.
