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HARTINGTON — After a very successful campaign last season which saw the Cedar Catholic Trojans make the semifinals at the Class D1 State Basketball Championships in Lincoln and finish with a 19-7 record in coach Nick Haselhorst’s first year as the head coach on the Cedar Catholic bench, Haselhorst and company return three starters and plenty of young talent to make a run at another tr ip to Lincoln this spring.
“We have the potential to be a very good team with three starters coming back, plenty of experience, eight other letter winners and newcomers prepared to step up and be key contributors,” Haselhorst said. “We will need to develop a rotation and team chemistry. We have size and athleticism throughout our team and we expect to be highly competitive and have a chance to win each game we pla y.”
The three starters returning are Nolan Becker, Jaymison Cattau and Braeden Reifenrath; all three are seniors.
“Nolan is an experienced scorer, Jaymison is a lengthy shooter and Braeden is strong and athletic,” Haselhorst said.
The returning letter winners include a senior, five juniors and a couple of sophomores.
Jacob Steffen, a senior, and juniors Mason Baller, Aaron Wortmann, Kighter Wortmann, Breiton Whitmire and Jared Rutar return along with sophomores, Hunter Bensen and Will Steffen.
The coach also mentioned Keyton Arens as being someone who could find the court.
The Cedar Catholic schedule presents several challenges to prepare this team for achieving the goals they have set for the se ason.
“Our schedule will be tough as usual with Boone Central, Norfolk Catholic, Wayne, O’Neill, Pierce and Battle Creek,” said Haselhorst. “And outside of the conference we will play Dakota Valley (SD), Omaha Roncalli and O’Neill St. Mary’s which are all very talented. We will also play in the very competitive Wayne Holiday Tourna ment and the Knight Classic at Bergan after the New Year along with the Mid-State Conference Tournament.”
The coach expects Wayne, Norfolk Catholic, Ponca and Guardian Angels to be good within the conference and listed Amherst, Freeman, Norfolk Catholic, Elkhorn Valley and his Trojans as the top teams in Class C2.
“We have a nice blend of experience returning along with some young kids who have been preparing and are ready to step up and play key roles for this team,” Haselhorst said. “As we build our team chemistry, we expect to be very tough by year’s end.”
The Trojans will open the season at home for the first two games against a couple of very good opponents. Boone Central comes to town on Dec. 6 with Omaha Roncalli the following night.
The Wayne Holiday Tournament runs from Dec. 27-30, the Knight Classic is set for Jan. 2 and Jan. 4 in Fremont. The Mid-State Conference Tournament opens Feb. 1 and runs through Feb. 8 and the sub-district tournaments are scheduled to tip off in late February.
