Grant Lehmann hopes the success he’s experienced recently will translate from the gridiron to the hardwood.
Lehmann, who was a part of the Wright City football team that won seven games, including one in the playoffs, is ready to trade in his pads for a spot in the front court with the boys basketball team this winter.
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Grant Lehmann hopes the success he’s experienced recently will translate from the gridiron to the hardwood.
Lehmann, who was a part of the Wright City football team that won seven games, including one in the playoffs, is ready to trade in his pads for a spot in the front court with the boys basketball team this winter.
It’s a trade he hopes will translate to success for a basketball team that went 8-17 one year ago under coach Ken Brown.
“A lot of the mental stuff does translate over. I think the way (football coach Tyler Rickard) teaches it,” Lehmann said. “It instills it in you beyond just football. And I know Coach Brown builds off of that because he's also a football coach. So, he understands that it (success) definitely carries a lot of the mental side. It is (about) being willing to put your head down and get to work, because sometimes it's going to be tough. You just have to keep getting through it, and eventually it’s going to work out.”
Lehmann, a 6-foot-6 post player, is one of three starters and five players, in total, who return for the Wildcats.
He joins 6-4 senior post player Kaiden Pilcher as part of a strong interior, while 6-1 senior Lavarious Green will also be important for the Wildcats.
Brown said that the Wildcats’ late-season surge of a year ago – the team winning four of its final five games had a lot to do with his post players.
“They started the season banged up from football,” Brown said. “I didn’t really get them both back until January and that’s when things started to take off for us. They got healthy; we got better.”
One area where the Wildcats are going to have to grow up, and grow up quickly, is at guard.
Brown said the team will improve as quickly as its youthful backcourt does.
“I think we're going to be pretty decent,” Brown said. “I think it depends on how quickly the guards develop. I only bring back one guard from last year's team. We need to see who will step up, take a leadership role and orchestrate the offense.”
It’s an offense that averaged in the low 40s last season while giving up more than 50 points per game, on average.
Those are numbers Brown said he would like to see flipped and he believes he has the group to do it.
“This is an athletic group,” Brown said. “The goal for us now is to get better every single day. Defense is going to be so important for us. You can’t win if you can’t defend. On offense, we developed a system last year that’s really wide open, and the kids seem to enjoy it.”
As with the football team, Pilcher said that last year’s basketball team learned a valuable lesson.
It’s a lesson he hopes will continue this season.
“Last year, we figured out that we worked hard and did what we're supposed to do, things worked out,” Pilcher said. “We have guys back, seniors, who went through that, and they know it’s our job to push everyone to be better and put in that effort.”
