Across the state of Indiana, the football state tournament is taking place and teams are either winning and moving on, or losing and transitioning to their winter sports. Our very own football team lost to North Montgomery in a very exciting 47-48 game. With the Lewis Cass football season coming to a close, the following sport is just next door: basketball. When the calendar first strikes November, basketball season is now in the minds of many people, and basketball season is soon to start.

     The first boys’ basketball practice was on Monday, November 11, and the scrimmage against Rossville will take place on Thursday, November 21 at home at 6 pm. With just two weeks of practice, the boys will take on the Carroll Cougars for the season opener on Tuesday, November 26, in the Kings’ home gym at 6 pm again. Following this game will be the Annual Lewis Cass Alumni Game will be on the evening of Friday, November 29, and the second game of the season against Northwestern will be on November 30, also in the Kings’ home gym with a 6 pm start time.

     The Kings’ are returning a much more experienced team this year than last with not much rebuilding taking place. The Kings only graduated two seniors last year, and the Lewis Cass Boys’ Basketball Head Coach, Eric Branz, said, “The most obvious benefit is that our players this year are coming back with experience. They are a year older, stronger, quicker, and understand how we do things. We have added a few things this year, but our upperclassmen are coming in with knowledge they did not have last year.” With experience all across the board, leadership is coming along with it. Leadership is an asset the team values highly. Coach Branz said, “The value of upperclassmen is tremendous. We talk a lot about leadership in our program and place a high value on players leading. We take the time to train all of our players in leadership because we feel it is that important. As the season went on last year, we saw growth in that area. That growth continued through the summer and fall.” Not only are leadership and experience valuable for the team but are valuable for the individual player as well. Also, Coach Branz claims players can feel more confident in their abilities because they have been in situations where they were not as experienced; however, now they are going through situations they have been in before and know what to expect and how to react. 

     Coming into this season, players have been looking at their schedule thinking how the season could unfold. Junior, Trey Johnson, said, “I am looking forward to seeing how much we can improve as a team from last year, the Cass County Tournament, and seeing how far we make it in the state tournament.” Unlike the players, Coach Branz does not like to look at the end of the season for goals. Branz said, “I do not like to look at destinations as goals, so we do not look at winning a certain amount of games or winning tournaments as goals. Our goals would be to create a player-led team, practice at a championship level each day, and continue to grow in our relationships, ability on the court, and as young men.” With that being said, this is Coach Branz’s second season as head coach at Cass, and he has goals he hopes to achieve that are bigger than basketball and winning games. Coach Branz said, “My goal is to be a transformational coach. I want the focus to be on growing in all aspects of life each day. That comes with a high level of accountability that not all young people are comfortable with, and that is OK. We want to compete in a way that shows a high level of commitment and dedication while respecting our opponents.” However, according to Trey Johnson, not much has changed from his time with former coach Kyle Johnson to the current coach. Trey says, “There are not many differences in the two coaches’ coaching styles, other than we have switched up a few things on the offensive end.” Trey also suffered a severe ankle injury last year, however, Johnson claims he is no longer affected by it and is “100%” healthy now. 

     The Kings are looking forward to improving this season, so come out and support the Kings in their many home games this year. The Kings will play in the annual Cass County Tournament, the Plymouth Holiday Tournament, and hopes of the State Tournament. Let’s go Kings!