Three Hampton-Dumont-CAL winter sports teams will be in action Tuesday.
The basketball teams will host Nevada for a non-conference doubleheader. Coming off last season’s 4-19 record, the boys will look to start hot under first-year head coach Matt Lokenvitz. He says with a veteran roster, building confidence will be a key.
“You have a season like they had last year where they only won four games, and there were a lot of games where they weren’t very close in the first half,” Lokenvitz says. “So when you get down 15, 20 points there in the first half, it’s tough to even want to come back out after halftime and try to pick away at that lead and those types of things. Just being able to instill that confidence to say, you guys are good players. You’ve got size, you’ve got athleticism, you’ve got some shooting ability. We can handle the ball. And just now installing a new offense that I think guys will be successful in. And let’s continue to run this until we kind of see that success.”
Four starters and some bench contributors from last year are back. Brady Harr scored 17.5 points with 13.1 rebounds to lead the way, followed by Caden Woods at 9.5 points per game on 55 percent shooting. Nevada went 19-5 last season and has three returning starters.
The Bulldog girls (0-1) will look to bounce back from a 62-19 loss to Aplington-Parkersburg in last week’s opener. They’ll look for greater efficiency after shooting 17 percent. The Cubs began their season last week with a 44-39 win over Boone, led by Emilee Kelly’s 23-point performance. The doubleheader will start at 6:00 p.m.
The boys wrestling team will begin its season with a dual at Lake Mills. They’ll be led by returning state qualifiers Madox Strother and Luke Showalter under first-year head coach Colin Muller. It’ll start at 7:00 p.m.
