Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Photo by Jen Kuhn Shawano Community High School senior point guard Zach Sousek, here driving past Hortonville’s Ryan Krueger during Shawano’s 55-28 regional-championship victory Saturday, is among the myriad weapons in coach Chris Kellett’s arsenal as Shawano gears up for a Marshfield Sectional encounter Thursday night with Merrill in Stevens Point.
If a 27-point win in the regional title game wasn’t cause enough for optimism, there is also this morsel.
The Shawano Community High School boys basketball team has already played its upcoming opponent at the Marshfield Sectional — and won by 20, on the road.
In their Dec. 5 season opener, the Hawks drilled Merrill 54-34, which has fueled speculation that Shawano’s push into the postseason will continue unfettered for at least one more night.
Given the many like playoff scenarios that haven’t quite gone to plan, though, a tiny dose of amnesia might be a better approach. That first matchup was literally a season ago.
“There were a lot of unknowns for both teams at that time,” Shawano coach Chris Kellett said. “They couldn’t really prepare for us the way they can now, and we couldn’t prepare for them the way we can now.”
It was a 28-26 game the first time around before the Hawks (19-5) started hitting 3-pointers and gradually pulling away from the Blue Jays (15-9). One of the unknowns to Merrill and coach Kurt Soderberg at that point was Eric Carl, a sharpshooting freshman whose outside game helps open things up for first-team All-Bay Conference center Zeke Gueths.
“They had us spinning,” Soderberg said. “They shot the ball well.”
Soderberg is no stranger to big-time playoff games. His 2011 Merrill squad advanced to the Division 2 state championship game, finishing runnerup to Whitefish Bay.
“We had a couple of superstar-quality guys on that team,” he said. “This team we have now, there are no superstars, but it’s the most depth I’ve had in my eight years coaching here. When we began the season we were pretty vanilla. Now we’re Baskin-Robbins.”
Merrill’s best player is Chaz Mootz, a first-team All-Wisconsin Valley Conference pick who averages more than 18 points a game. Six-foot-five Jake Anderson is an athletic frontcourt player who will present good matchup challenges for Gueths, and Shawano forwards Jack Lacy and Sajen Knueppel.
Merrill’s guard tandem of Scott Wallace and Austin Reissmann have made considerable strides throughout a season marred by a sluggish start and bewildering setbacks.
One of the hard-to-explain defeats was an eight-point loss to a Waupaca squad that went 6-17.
“That was just a bad game,” Soderberg said. “It was right before Christmas break, and we played four games in six days. But we’ve found ourselves now and we’re playing with a lot of confidence. You know, on any given night … we’re talking about 16- and 17-year-old kids here. You watch NBA games, or college games, and those players don’t always do what they’re supposed to do. Things don’t always go to plan. That’s what I love about sports.”
Shawano’s recent hot streak mirrors that of Merrill in that the winning has been done by committee. Guard Zach Sousek, a second-team All-Bay Conference selection, Gueths, Lacy (honorable mention all-conference), Knueppel, Carl and Braden Mueller have all had big moments, and Kellett can look down the bench with confidence that Dylan Hintz, Adam Bartz or Kaden Richards can come in and contribute.
“Zach is a real competitor,” Kellett said. “He doesn’t want to lose at anything — he wants to win every drill we do at practice. It’s been good having him at the point. Really, the most gratifying thing about this season is how everybody has bought into everything that we’re doing.”
Shawano advanced to the sectional semifinal last year before getting ousted by a physical Rhinelander club. This season, and especially of late, it has been the surging Hawks meting out the physical play.
“Our staple has been getting into guys, making them work for their shots,” Kellett said. “The goal all season was the sectional, and we’re excited about being where we are. We’re not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re just going to try and go 1-0 every day.”