Warrenton’s Caleb Strauss and Trevor Alberternst were named to the Gateway Athletic All-Conference teams, school officials announced last week.

The duo led the Warriors with 10 points each per game.

Strauss, a 6-foot-7 sophomore forward, was a first-team selection after leading the Warriors with 14.9 rebounds.

“I wasn’t really sure how the all-conference meeting would play out,” Warrenton Head Coach Mike Uffmann said. “But once we got in there and started discussing the players, I knew he had a good chance to make it on the first team. If you rebound as well as he did and score to go along with it, you’re definitely going to be recognized.”

After grabbing five rebounds in the season opener against O’Fallon Christian Dec. 1, Strauss finished with no less than six boards in every game the rest of the way.

He grabbed over 20 rebounds on seven occasions, including 22 in the first-round district win over Mexico Feb. 29.

“He got better as the season went along, and that’s the main thing,” Uffmann said. “There was definitely a big difference in his level of play.”

Uffmann said Strauss’ biggest area for growth is confidence, where he sometimes defers to older players on the court.

“If you put him out there with his peers on the J.V. level, you would see that domination mentality,” he said. “And he had that mentality on the varsity level at times, it just wasn’t consistent every night. I think the summer and offseason will be big for him to help develop that.”

Alberternst, Strauss’ teammate in the post, earned second-team honors.

The junior forward averaged 5.8 rebounds to go along with his 10 points, while leading the team with a 53.6 shooting percentage.

“Sometimes I feel like he does a lot of things that go unnoticed,” Uffmann said. “So it’s good that other people noticed those things after the season.”

Alberternst had a season-high 21 points against Liberty Jan. 14, and Uffmann called him the most unselfish player on the team.

Next season, he hopes Alberternst gets a little more greedy.

“He took over at the end of the Mexico game, and that was big for us,” Uffmann said. “I hope to see more of that next season.”

Uffmann praised Alberternst’s defensive unselfishness, too, pointing out how often he was in the correct spot to help teammates in trouble.

After narrowing his athletic career down to basketball and being one of the few seniors on next year’s team, Uffmann thinks Alberternst will have a newfound focus and take on a bigger leadership role over the summer and in the fall.

“He’s a good leader, and I think he’s only going to get better in that regard,” Uffmann said.