Chris Caporale
Six seniors for the Menominee Indian boys basketball team played in at least 10 games, with Grant Gomeyosh and Nick Corn leading the way with 21 starts apiece last winter, leaving a massive void on the court.
Fortunately for the Eagles, leading scorer Ron Frechette, who posted 13.3 points per game on 53 percent shooting, will lead the way, with junior Warren Wilber following with nearly 10 points per game. Frechette and Wilber look to keep Menominee Indian heading in the right direction.
“The majority of our class for playing time last year was seniors, so it’s kind of hard to replace that, but our leaders this year have been stepping up really well,” Eagles head coach James Oshkeshequoam said. “They’ve taken a leadership role this past summer, and they hit the weight room hard, and they’ve really taken it upon themselves to get everybody else to the level we need to be at.”
Menominee Indian was 10-13 overall and 8-10 in the Central Wisconsin Conference-10, finishing in a three-way tie for fifth place.
Frechette, who posted the highest shooting percentage out of the team’s regular contributors, is looking for a way to become an even bigger contributor on the offensive end.
“I worked on my shooting a lot this summer, but yet my post game, there’s always room for improvement, so I did a lot of work down low still,” Frechette said.
Darwin King and Jerome Munson are the other two athletes who saw playing time a season ago, that are looking to come up big for the Eagles in 2016-17.
Through the first week of practice, Oshkeshequoam appreciates how close the team is.
“I’m not going to underestimate their commitment to each other, because that can go a long way,” Oshkeshequoam said. “As long as we have that, we work hard with each other in practice and during games, everything else will take take care of itself.”
The competitive CWC-10 will post a challenge for the Eagles, but that won’t keep Frechette from dreaming big in his final year, joining the likes of the girls basketball team as the most recent teams to hang a banner in to MIHS gym.
“This year, the ultimate goal is to put a banner up on the wall,” Frechette said. “Conference champs.”