Jr. High team completes undefeated season
Alan Dale
Randolph Times
RANDOLPH — The reality is that the biggest basketball team in town is the Randolph Cardinals varsity and admittedly, this year was a challenge for the 1-win squad.
But there could be some serious hope for the future if one just takes a look at the junior high squad.
Led by head coach Rob Engel, the squad went 8-0 and notched wins against Hartington, Laurel, Creighton, Crofton, Plainview, and Bloomfield.
The last two games were in the Osmond Tournament, with wins over Plainview and another up-and-coming strong, youth program from Wausa-Osmond by three points.
The team consisted of eighth graders Luke Harder, Adrian Samano, Logan Linemann, Lucas Bartels, Corbin Wattier, Lance Stange and Carter Parr and seventh graders Ryan Engel, Brecken Shearer, Kody Junck, Milo Rayford, Hunter McGhee, and Khrystopher Lyons-Bare.
“This group was really fun to coach, they were really competitive and never wanted a drill to go by without making their goal,” Coach Engel said. “They always wanted to play their best and weren’t satisfied just with a win, they always wanted to improve for the next game.”
Offense was the name of the game for the team as it scored in the ranges of 45 to 55 points per night through the first six games.
Considering they only play six-minute quarters, that is nothing to sneeze at.
“They also played great defense and we had a good mix of posts and guards,” Rob Engel said. “The most impressive part was that they were all just interested in getting the ball to the open guy, they didn’t care who scored as long as they got the win.
They are a very competitive group and wanted to do everything they could to come out on top, they pushed each other to get better all season.”
Coach Engel sees this group making some noise over the next few years as the high school program beckons.
“This is a group that will be fun to watch develop over the next four to five years,” he said. “They have the right mix of post and guard play and some kids who are far from done growing so it will be a team with a lot of skill, size, and athleticism in high school.”
Harder admits that he and his teammates are aware of the recent struggles above them, and they are bound and determined to help change the course of things.
“We all want to make our team better in high school and we get a lot of motivation (from the struggles),” Harder said. “We all want to be better than we are now. We think we are ready, and we all want to play.
“We work a lot on becoming bigger and stronger.”
Harder says the boys are already hitting the weight room in anticipation of what’s to come.
His explanation of the team’s success was quite simple.
“We would all pass the ball, would score and we all wanted to win and thought the same,” Harder said. “We all enjoyed having fun together. We are a little bit of both – we all want to work together, and we all get along.”
