By Morgan Rode sports@newmedia-wi.com
Leader Photo by Morgan Rode Menominee Indian’s Norman Kakwitch, center, drives into the Bonduel defense during a game on Feb. 15. Kakwitch was named to the CWC-East first team after a big junior season.
Bonduel High School boys basketball senior Parker Bohm was recently tabbed the player of the year in the Central Wisconsin Conference-East Division.
It was Shiocton and Iola-Scandinavia that tied atop the conference with 11-1 records, but Bohm that walked away with the top individual honor after averaging a league-best 20.7 points per game. He also pulled down 6.6 rebounds a game.
“Being named player of the year in the CWC-East is an absolute dream come true,” Bohm said. “Looking back at the previous players to win this award really put things into perspective for me. It was a dream I had growing up and it is an unbelievable feeling to accomplish that.”
“We’re very excited for Parker for receiving that honor as he certainly deserved it,” Bonduel coach Duke Copp said. “He really stepped up his game this year and was a tremendous all-around player. He ended up third on all-time scoring list at Bonduel. As I’ve said many times, he is also an outstanding person and has worked hard to get to where he is. We will no doubt miss him a ton.”
Bill Uelman ranks first at Bonduel with 1,322 points, while Jason Wesenberg had 1,287. Bohm finished his career with 1,256.
“I have put countless hours into this sport,” Bohm said. “With five years of AAU basketball and excessive hours in the gym, the time and effort has paid off. Most importantly none of this would have been possible without the support of my coaches and family throughout the years.”
Four other juniors rounded out the all-conference first team. Menominee Indian’s Norman Kakwitch was one of them.
Kakwitch averaged 16.2 points per game while grabbing 5.5 boards per game. Kakwitch caught fire from the floor in several of the Eagles’ contests this season. He scored 29 points, his season high, three times.
“It means so much,” Kakwitch said of the honor. “I worked so hard to achieve that. Its always been a goal for me cause my uncle Aaron Waukau got it when he was a junior. Big shoutout to my teammates and coach for believing in me — I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Bonduel, Menominee Indian and Wittenberg-Birnamwood each placed a player on the honorable mention team.
Cole Letter, a Bonduel junior, averaged just under 10 points per game. He also averaged over four assists per game as the orchestrator of the Bears offensive attack.
“Making an all-conference team has been a goal since my freshman year and it felt good to finally achieve it after dedicating many hours to the goal,” Letter said. “I plan to go into my senior season hungrier than ever because I didn’t quite make the all-conference team I was hoping for, and that will be a driving factor going forward.”
Menom Powless enjoyed a strong junior season on the court for Menominee Indian, averaging 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 3.6 steals per game.
Despite the Eagles graduating several seniors from this year’s team, Powless is confident he and Kakwitch can lead the way moving forward.
“My teammates have also helped me gain a lot of confidence and helped me grow over the past year, also,” Powless said. “But going into my last year of high school it would be a big achievement getting all-conference — but I know there’s a lot I have to do during the offseason and it won’t be easy, but as long as I have my teammates and my coaches, they will help me get to where I want to be.”
Senior Michael Gibson represented Wittenberg-Birnamwood on the honorable mention team. He led the conference in rebounding while also chipping in about 10 points per game.
Gibson moved from Kentucky to Wisconsin before the school year. He thanked his teammates for making the move easier.
“All my teammates were fun to play with and great friends to be around — I’ll remember them forever,” Gibson said. “It was a pretty easy transition moving — I made a lot of friends pretty quickly. When you move to a new school the first thing you think about is ‘I’m not going to have friends cause I’m the new kid.’ Well, sports really help that and being a part of a team help(s) that fear a lot. Cause you instantly have, well for basketball, around 15 people you know and can talk to and become friends with.”
Shiocton’s Chad Schmidt and Iola-Scandinavia’s Sam Bertsch shared the coach of the year honor. Of the 15 all-conference athletes, only six were seniors — the rest were juniors.