Brodey Meier likes the makeup of the Warrenton boys basketball team headed into the 2025-26 season.

Coming off a season in which the Warriors finished 11-15, Meier, who stands 6-foot-4, thinks that there is plenty of motivation to make things different this season.

“We have a bit of a chip on our shoulders,” Meier said. “I think that, with the guys we have here, winning our conference and district are goals that we have.”

What the Warriors have, according to 5-8 senior guard Deadrick Forrest, is a team that can do just about anything in playing at whatever style or pace suits it.

With the work the Warriors put in during the offseason and with the different personnel from a year ago, Warrenton will be able to go whistle to whistle, Forrest said.

“I think we can be really fast,” Forrest said. “But we can also go down and run a good play and get an easy bucket on you, if we need to do that. We're a lot bigger this year, so we'll have people in the post down low, but we’ll also rebound and get some shots up from them. We’re going to run whatever pace (we need).”

Veteran coach Mark Thomas said he likes the way his players are viewing the coming season.

Thomas said he wants the Warriors to focus on how they can impact the game without worrying about any outside factors.

“We’re going to focus inward and work to develop some new guys along with our seniors,” Thomas said. “When we get everybody playing together, as a group, I think this will be an exciting year for us.”

There are five seniors: 5-8 guard/forward Jay Sanders, 6-4 forward/center Taylor Anderson, and 6-4 forward/center Billy Speiser, who should also provide leadership.

Forrest returns one season removed from being first-team GAC North all-conference while Anderson made the second team.

Thomas said he expects plenty out of his top class because they’ve either had the playing experience to ready them for the season, or they’ve been around the program long enough to know what’s expected.

“I’m very confident,” Thomas said. “These guys have been with us, some of them have been on varsity for four years. The others, I feel like, as juniors, they all were big contributors for us. We had a good summer and I'm just excited about their leadership. And we added (Speiser) into the mix and he's fit right in with the guys. He's going to be another good addition in the post for us.”

Thomas said that the versatility he sees in the squad he has is a double-edged sword.

Sure, the team is capable of many different things, given the expectations of seniors, shooting, speed, and size. The coach just has to figure out the best plan of attack.

“It's a blessing and a curse right now, because it makes my mind go all over the place,” Thomas said. “I’m like, ‘what can we do?’ ‘Can we put this in?’ And then, it's like, ‘wait a minute. We got to work on the basics first,’ just like any season, and then we can come back, and then we can get more creative, you know, opponent to opponent, we should be able to (get creative).”