A learning curve for the Raiders

By Casey Krautkramer

This is Marathon varsity girls basketball coach Jeff Schneider’s 19th season at the helm, yet he’s still learning new ways to effectively teach the game to his young players. The Red Raiders only have two seniors on this year’s team and they aren’t in the starting lineup.

Schneider has taken advice from Kimberly head coach David Lepisto who is in the midst of only his second season guiding the Papermakers. His young squad last season struggled and finished with a 16-12 record but this season the team has a much more impressive 17-3 record.

“He had a rough year in his first season, but this year Kimberly is a top-five team in Division 1,” Schneider said. “He worked with our kids last summer and we really like a lot of his coaching concepts that he teaches. There are a lot of ways to teach basketball but you need to find the simplest and most effective way to teach young kids how to understand the game and play together.”

Marathon beat Abbotsford, 49-37, on Thursday at home. Sophomore Emma Love led the Red Raiders with 15 points while sophomore Myles Haehlke added 13. Haehlke paced the team with 15 rebounds and junior Chenpieng Phakitthong collected two steals.

The young Red Raiders had a difficult time against the Wisconsin Rapids Royals Tuesday at home. Marathon lost, 52-31, to Assumption which is still undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the wissports.net Division 5 coaches poll. Game statistics were not available before the newspaper was printed.

Marathon currently has a 3-11 record in the Marawood South Conference and is 6-15 overall this season. Schneider said his team has “absolutely” improved throughout this season.

“It hasn’t always shown up on the scoreboard but we have a lot of kids that are working just to become more confident players in terms of what they can do when they catch the ball,” Schneider said. “Since Christmas break, we’ve really focused on the basic fundamentals of basketball like catching and passing the ball and it’s not the most fun thing to work on but we have definitely improved on them.”

Schneider believes that the Marathon varsity girls basketball teams that he’s coached over the years have always had the “family” motto but this season he added “together.” The Red Raiders have the word “family” on the backs of their practice jerseys before games. After Thursday’s win against Abbotsford, the team could be heard from outside the locker room yelling “Together. Family.”

“We’ve always had the ‘family’ motto but this season we added the word ‘together’ because if you are going to sum up one word on how you have to play good basketball, you need to play together on offense and defense,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in the preseason watching UW-Stevens Point second year head coach Matt Hockett and his big word to his team was ‘family.’ I took the word ‘family’ from him because we like the fact that family means that we are going to support each other and stick up for each other when things aren’t going our way and when times are tough.”

Marathon sophomore player Myles Haehlke describes how the team’s motto of “Together. Family” has helped this season.

“It just made us realize that we are all in this together as a family, whether we win or lose,” she said. “You need to pick up your teammate when she makes a mistake on the court. We feel that we have been there for each other this season in realizing that we will grow every single day during practices and games, and things aren’t going to always come easy but we just need to work together to get through it.”

Schneider also enjoys learning basketball coaching techniques from UW-Oshkosh men’s coach Matt Lewis.

“There are just a lot of good current high school coaches, former coaches and college coaches that you can pick their

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HANGING TOUGH NEAR THE HOOP- Marathon junior Kyla Heise scores a basket in her team’s 49-37 home win against Abbotsford on Thursday. PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Hoops action

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brains they effectively taught the game of basketball to their players,” he said.

Athens boys and girls

The Athens varsity boys basketball team beat Drummond, 57-42, on Thursday at home. Sophomore Jordan Frahm led the Bluejays with 12 points while freshman Daxton Diethelm and sophomore Riley Schultz-Becker added 11 points each and senior Ty Johnson had 10.

Athens then lost two straight games, 65-45, at Wisconsin Rapids Assumption on Friday and 63-54, to Colby at home on Monday. Senior Andy Schaer led Athens with 24 points in the loss to Assumption. Game stats against Colby were not available before the newspaper was printed.

The Athens boys currently have a 3-9 record in the Marawood North Conference and are 7-12 overall this season. Rib Lake is posed to win the outright Marawood North championship this season. The Redmen are 9-3 in the conference and have a three-game lead on second place Prentice with four conference games left this season.

The Athens varsity girls basketball squad almost knocked off undefeated No. 1 ranked Wisconsin Rapids Assumption on Thursday. Athens held a 26-23 halftime advantage in Wisconsin Rapids but it couldn’t hang on at the very end, losing 53-54. Bluejays senior Sophia Coker scored a game-high 27 points and she led the Bluejays with 13 rebounds. She made 12 of 22 two-point shots for 55 percent shooting. She also led Athens with four blocks on defense. Athens beat Chequamegon, 72-28, on Tuesday at home but game statistics were not available before the newspaper was printed.

Athens currently has an 11-3 record in the Marawood North Conference and is 13-8 overall this season. The Phillips girls are 13-1 in the Marawood North and will win the outright conference title.

Edgar boys and girls

The Edgar varsity boys basketball squad defeated Phillips, 61-49, on Friday at home. Seniors Karter Butt and Teegan Streit scored a game-high 14 points apiece for the Wildcats. Senior Brett Baumgartner added 11 points and junior Leyton Schuett had 10. Streit paced the team with three steals.

Edgar improves its record to 9-3 in the Marawood South Conference and 14-4 overall this season.

The Edgar varsity girls basketball team has lost two straight games, 74-23, to Phillips at home on Thursday and 48-32 at Auburndale on Tuesday. No Wildcats player reached double-digit scoring in either game. Edgar currently has a 6-8 record in the Marawood South Conference and is 9-11 overall this season.

BOMBS AWAY- Marathon junior guard Cayden Sapinski attempts a three pointer during her team’s 49-37 home win against Abbotsford on Thursday.

PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER