By TYLER HENRY
Little Apple Post contributor
After a solid 14-8 campaign that saw them reach the sub-state final, the Wamego boy’s basketball team will look to reload and take the next step in 2022-23.
The Red Raiders will be led as always by head coach Troy Hemphill, who enters his 25th season at the helm in Wamego.
Despite graduating six seniors over the offseason, the Raiders return a great deal of talent and will be eager to take put themselves in a position for a potential return to the 4A state tournament.
While the starting five has yet to be decided, Wamego will look to a stacked rotation of eight upperclassmen, hoping to get big minutes out of seniors Colin Donahue, Joey Shea, Mason Herzog, Emery Wolfe, and Chase Cottam, as well as juniors Dusty Monroe, Drew Pettay, and Spencer Hecht.
Ahead of the 2022-23 season, we had a chance to catch up with Coach Hemphill to get his thoughts on this year’s Red Raider squad.
Q: What were your overall thoughts on the 2021-22 campaign?
A: We had a good season last year, going 8-2 in our league and winning the league championship for the second year in a row, but had a disappointing finish in the sub-state final. We thought we had a very good chance to go to the state tournament and win a game or two there, but we fell short.
Q: How excited is everyone to get back on the floor and back to playing real games after a long offseason?
A: We are very excited to get back to the season, although these days it seems there is no real off-season. We have some key players who were still playing football as of last Saturday, so we'll need to get them up to speed very quickly.
Q: Coming into the year what would you say is the biggest strength of this team?
A: I think the biggest strength will be experience and team unity. Even though we lost a bunch of seniors last year, we have several guys with experience coming back. I also think this group will play well together.
Q: What are the biggest question marks about this team as we head into the first few weeks?
A: We need depth at the post position and develop some additional outside scoring punch.
Q: What are the goals and expectations of this team for this 2022-23 season?
A: Our goals are the same each year: win our league championship and go to the state tournament. I believe both of those goals are realistic for this group.
The Raiders will open their season on Thursday, December 3rd when Wamego hosts Topeka High.
For continuing coverage of Raider basketball all season long, stay tuned to the Little Apple Post.