The Dike-New Hartford boys basketball team will have five new starters this season after each of last year’s graduated. Head Coach Alex Tagtow says Aiden Walston, Jaiden Soppe and Dawson Dietrick will be leaned on for big production after being key bench players last year.
“Aiden played really big minutes for us in the second half of the season, really defends really well,” Tagtow says. “And I think maybe as much as anybody understands what we’re trying to do on that side of the ball, does a great job of kind of getting us organized there. Jiaden started some games for us early last year as we were kind of sorting out some injuries coming off our pretty deep football run there. So he’s got that experience. Dawson is a guy that gives us some size and gives us some versatility. He’s a big guy, but he’s got really good feet and really good hands, and we can definitely run some stuff through him. Those three guys kind of give us a little bit of a stabilizing presence for all the new guys that we’re running in all the way around. I’ve been very pleased with those three.”
Soppe scored 4.7 points per game last season to lead the way among returners.
At 6’3”, Dietrick will provide a post presence, and Tagtow says they could rely on getting points in the paint much more often than in previous seasons.
“That’s something that we didn’t really do a ton last year. We were really guard dominated and playing through our point guard very much so as much as we could last year. That’s definitely a big shift for us. He’s a guy that can score around the basket and even step out and score off the dribble a little bit. So that’s something we’ll be adding in for sure.”
They’ll begin the season by hosting Hudson on Tuesday, December 2.
Alex Tagtow interview:
