Edgerton area high school basketball teams are ready to start the 2021 basketball season. Games are set to begin this week, so read below to see a brief outlook of just what the season will look like for some of our local teams:

Edgerton Public Girls Basketball by Nancy Wassink –

Looking around at the teammates that are a part of this year’s Dutchmen basketball squad doesn’t look a lot different than last year. Having lost only two seniors from last season, the Dutchmen carry over 14 players with the majority of them bringing another year of maturity in addition to varsity experience.

The Dutchmen will rely on seniors Addison Fleischman, Teagan Leusink, and Brinna Bloemendaal to lead Edgerton this season. Fleischman brings knowledge to the floor, managing the offense and dishing up several assists per contest along with a handful of steals. Leusink has been reliable off the bench making the most of her minutes crashing the boards and working the low post on offense. Bloemendaal, coming off a knee injury that had her sidelined last year, will bring quickness for the Dutchmen, putting on defensive pressure and helping run the floor offensively.

Underclassmen contributing to the Dutchmen effort will be juniors Reece Wassink, Haley Wieck, Emma Schoolmeester, and Braelyn Kracht joined by sophomores Miriam Ockenga, Savannah Schultz, and Brenalyn Smit. Wassink returns as lead scorer for the Dutchmen ,putting in 12 points per game last season, and Wieck as lead rebounder with 9 boards per contest. Schultz will be effective on both sides of the court making up for a missed freshman season due to a knee injury and Smit comes in off the bench with strong defense and aggressive moves to the basket.

Freshmen Alyda Vande Griend, a returning starter effective in driving the lane and creating scoring opportunities, along with Mateya Gilbertson, Lexi Gilbertson, and eighth grader Elliot Fleischman round out the squad.

The EHS effort starts Friday night in a game at Westbrook Walnut Grove.

Eagle Boys Ready For A “Different” Season – by Skip Hunter

Unless something changes we will see some high school basketball this week. Both the girls’ and boys’ teams of Southwest Minnesota Christian will hit the court on Thursday night with the boys playing at home against Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda while the girls will travel to Lamberton to play Red Rock Central. This week we will introduce the oys’ team, and next week the girls will be featured.

This will be a different year as the players, at least at the start of the season, will be wearing masks. We hope that this will change. There will only be a limited amount of fans in the stands; we hope this will change as well. Those of you who can get to the game will need to fill the gym with a lot of noise to encourage the players. This feature of high school sports was definitely missing during the volleyball season.

The boys will have 3 seniors on the roster. Hunter Vander Haar will hold down the post position. Hunter knows how to use his body to keep taller players away from the rim. He is not afraid to throw that body around on defense. Jacob Raak returns with his leaping ability. Hopefully, he can contribute in a big way on offense. Zach Prins will bring senior stability to the line-up.

Juniors wearing the black and gold are Micah Schaap, Carter Van Hulzen, Cole Walhof, Levi Van Dyken, and Cody Van’t Hof. Schaap logged a lot of minutes last year and can “jump out of the gym” for boards. Lanky Van Hulzen will stretch defenses with his 3-point shooting. The other juniors will work to find their places in Coach Jamie Pap’s rotation.

Sophomore Dawson Rieck will also suit up on the varsity. Other sophomores will be playing both varsity and JV. It will obviously be a different team with the graduation of last year’s seniors. Eagle basketball is always exciting and we hope you are either at the game or following on whatever media is broadcasting. Pay attention to the SWC website for details.

Coach Pap tabbed HL-O/F and W-WG as two of the teams to beat this year. H-BC always plays the Eagles tough, and Mountain Lake returns some good athletes as well. Let’s play basketball!

EHS Boys Look To Improve On Last Season – by Mike Drooger

When the 2020 Minnesota girls’ and boys’ state basketball tournaments were canceled back in March due to the virus, did you think the virus would still be around disrupting the start of the 2020-’21 basketball season?  Well, it is, but the season is set to start for the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen boys on January 14 at Westbrook.

The Chargers of Westbrook-Walnut Grove figure to have a very good squad this season led by senior standout Ethan Mischke who can score from any spot on the court.  Mischke and his mates were 20-9 last year, which included a nine-game winning streak late in the season.  They look for big things in ’21.

Minnesota schools will play an abbreviated schedule this season.  The Dutchmen typically play 21-23 regular-season games but will have to settle for just 18 in the 2021 campaign.  The season is equally divided into three months of six games.  Edgerton will play 16 games within the Red Rock Conference, plus two non-conference affairs vs. Madelia and Cottonwood.  Both of the non-conference games will be played at home.

The Dutchmen had just one senior last season, but he was unable to play even one game.  Jeff Burvee injured his knee during football, which forced him to sit out the entire basketball season.  Burvee did attend practice last season, and he was on the bench during every game providing leadership and encouragement that will be missed in 2021.

Doug Van Kley moved to Edgerton in 1985 to begin teaching and coaching. He was Randy Butson’s assistant basketball coach. For the three seasons that Edgerton was paired with Chandler-Lake Wilson and known as the C-E-LW Ridge Runners, Van Kley was the assistant to Vince Hurley for two seasons and Roger     Kiihn for one. When Chandler-Lake Wilson opted to join Slayton to form Murray County Central after the 1992 tornado, Edgerton went back on its own, the Flying Dutchmen name was resurrected, and Van Kley named the head coach.  This will be his 29th season at the helm.

Coach Van Kley will have a good group of experienced players with which to work this season as they strive to improve on last year’s 1-21 mark.