Coach Erik Wetjen is back as the boy’s basketball coach this year.
The Heartland boys’ basketball team will be coached again by Erik Wetjen, who coached the girls’ team for the past two seasons but was the boys’ coach three years ago. Since the resignation of the former boys coach, Taylor Siebert, last spring, Wetjen has taken over the program. Coach Wetjen is one of Heartland’s most experienced coaches and, in addition, has coached boys and girls junior high basketball, track, and football for the past 23 years.
Also new this year will be a father/son duo coaching the Huskies! Coach Wetjen’s oldest son, Kale, a 2022 Heartland graduate, will be his assistant coach this season. Kale is currently doing an internship at NPPD and will graduate from Wayne State with a degree in computer science.
There are 24 boys out for basketball this season, and official practice started on Monday, Nov. 18th. Starters returning are the following: Thane Wetjen, Carter Siebert, Luis Alvarez and Sam Quiring.
“We’re counting on our seniors to lead this basketball team over the course of the season. Some younger talent that needs some recognition would be Maddox Reiger who saw a decent amount of playing time at the end of the season. Maddox will share some of the point guard duties with Thane Wetjen. Both Trenton Goertzen and Holden Switzer have shown good progress this summer and will be fun to watch,” said Coach Wetjen.
Wetjen said all their returning starters and letter-winners will impact the game. “We expect some will have a bigger role to play for the team than others, but everyone will be contributing either in practice and games.” Senior Thane Wetjen wil take on a bigger load running the offence as point guard as well as scoring and rebounding.
“Carter Siebert will be asked to step up his post-play, and we’ll use him as an outside threat at the three-point line. We look for Sam Quiring to clean up the boards in both scoring and rebounding. Luis Alvarez will be playing a new position this season as a forward. Luis has good quickness, and we think he can be a solid mid-range shooter for us,” said Coach Wetjen.
They expect to install a few new schemes this season, and he hopes to build some confidence throughout the season as they learn and progress.
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