Boys Basketball
Head Coach: Mike Uffmann (5th year)
Top Returners: Connor Turnbull, Kylen Watson, Josh Bauer, Chandler Smith
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Top Newcomers: Freshman Kobe Anderson, Sophomores Trent Menke & Bobby Edwards
Team Goals/Expectations: The Panthers are coming off a historical year with a 27-4 record and finishing 4th in Class 6. With those results come lofty expectations. The Panthers will start the season short handed as they are without Kylen Watson, Bryce Hall & Nathan Lund while freshman point guard Kobe Anderson is battling an early-season injury. Winning back-to-back district championships, there is an expectation for the Panthers to be playing their best basketball in March and compete for a district championship. We will have sophomores Trent Menke, Bobby Edwards, Lynden Sanders and Murtaja Alkhaldi earning valuable varsity experience early on and we will rely on seniors Connor Turnbull, Josh Bauer, Chandler Smith and Gabe Pagano as well as junior Taylor Mason to help lead our team.
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Quote:"We return All-Stater and Butler commit Connor Turnbull who will help the inexperienced Panthers early on. After Connor, there are only 3 healthy players who have scored a total of 26 varsity points. We expect to get better every time we take the court. The young guys play with so much energy and the older guys provide great leadership. We are going to create offense from our defense with our pressure on guards and the ability to block shots inside. The growth this group is going to show will be substantial and fun to watch." Mike Uffmann
First Game: The Panthers competed in the Borgia "Turkey" Tournament over Thanksgiving break. The Panthers finished as the tournament runner-up and stand at 2 -1 on the season. The Panthers will travel to Jackson this Friday (12/3) to take on the Indians with a tip-off at 7:00 pm.
Girls Basketball
Head Coach: Dusty Weiskopf (3rd year)
Top Returners: Allie Grimes, Mackenzie Darrah, Rihanna Blanchard
Top Newcomers: Matti Skelton, Ava Hollandsworth, Anna Kolkmeir, Abby Anderson, & Reese Hamed
Team Goals/Expectations: We are trying to keep things simple this year. We are going to embrace the process of getting better each and every day and we believe the scores will take care of themselves. We are extremely young and do not return much Varsity experience. But, we are not going to let that hinder us. Our goals are to be consistent with our play, play hard every minute of the game, and do things together as a team.
First Game: Today (12/1) @ Liberty - 5:30 pm.
Boys Wrestling
Head Coach: Josh Cooper (7th year)
Top Returners: Panther's will be led this year by returning Seniors Jackson Cox (145/152) and Thein Le (138/145). Cox had lettered for the Panthers in each of the three previous seasons. Both Cox and Le have good deal of varsity experience and look to finish their careers on high notes. Junior Chance Cole (182/195) is the Panthers only returning state qualifier, Cole finished 5th at State in 2020, but he is out with an injury until second semester. Conner O’Neal (182), Andy Guthery (170), Blake Jaco and Alex Goeke (285) are all returning lettermen. The middle to upper weights look to be an area of strength for the Panthers.
Top Newcomers: Jacob Bals (106), Nathan Provost (106/113), Logan Bizzle (138), Jacob Sweeten
(182/195)
Team Goals/Expectations: The Panthers will look to the second half of the season before solidifying their line-up. The team has potential to advance a number of grapplers to the state tournament this season.
First Match: December 4th - FZN Tournament - 9:00 am.
Girls Wrestling
Head Coaches: Josh Cooper/Matt Steinhoff
Top Returners: Carleigh Jones (151/159) is the program’s only returning state qualifier from a season ago. She hopes to make a return trip in February. Also returning for the Panthers is Courtnee Hoff (100), Hoff narrowly missed qualifying for state last season. She posted the top individual win/loss record for the Panthers a season ago and is hoping to improve on last season’s performance. Other returning letter winners from a season ago include: Jailyn Ebert (117), Ali Burkemper (107), Kayla Hobday (122) and Rose Fergin (151).
Top Newcomer: Chloe Jones (151/159)
First Match: December 3rd –FZN Tournament – 5:00 pm
Girls Swim & Dive
Head Coach: Alice Maloney (3rd year)
Top Returners: Diver Savannah Maier, Lyla Campbell, Callie James, Sydney Kelsey, Clarisse Woods
Top Newcomers: Senior Hannah Shylanski, Freshman Marysa Allen, & Freshman Jaden Ross
Team Goals/Expectations: We have a very large team of swimmers and divers this year, we have 32 total teammates. Over half of the team are new members which range from freshman to seniors. Almost all of the new members have never swam before. This means we have our work cutout for us and are willing to work hard. We have a team goal to have every member be able to swim or dive at GACs and to have at least two relays make State and have at least one if not two individuals earn spots to compete at state in individual events. We would like to take down at least one school record this year too!
Quote : Our team is facing some challenges this year, we lost some key components with our graduating seniors. We will have to work hard in the little time given at the Rec Plex and the very limited number of lanes. We have on average two, maybe three lanes for an hour a day and we are going to try to improve as much as we can with as little as we are given. We are up to the challenge to make lemonade out of lemons. We sure hope the bond gets passed and a pool gets built so we can develop swimmers and divers so they have the same opportunity as other sports to get better and have scholarship opportunities.
First Meet: Thursday (12/2) vs. Hannibal @ Rec-Plex 3:30 pm