
By Brenda Erdahl
Sports Editor
The Irish boys basketball team had its first outing, Friday, Dec. 8 as hosts to Howard Lake-Waverly Winsted. Despite a 65-25 loss, coaches have high hopes for the season and the program in general.
“Our program numbers have increased by 18 players to 38 total players. We have three levels competing this year, C, JV and Varsity. It is my understanding we haven’t had a C squad since 2015,” Head Coach Bryan Schleif said.
Friday’s game saw an entirely new team out on the court from the previous season. Only one player returns from last year’s squad and that is senior guard Nick Lind.
The Irish have new faces from Holy Spirit in Monticello who played with Kaleidoscope last season and senior foreign exchange student Pablo Manzanedo of Spain who coach Schleif called a “special talent.”
“He possesses great court vision and is also one of our better scorers. Pablo will make others on the team better by just being on the court,” he predicted. The Irish played an exciting game against the rival Lakers, Friday night to a large crowd. Schleif said he was happy with the way the Irish ran in transition and in their half-court offense. Overall, they are still trying to gel as a team, but he has seen progress. Manzanedo and Wyatt Breimon both had great games against the Lakers, Schleif said. Breimon sunk some needed two and three-point shots, scoring six points for the night and Manzanedo lead scoring with 12 points.
“Wyatt is tall and athletic and will be a huge addition to the team this season,” Schleif said.
The Irish have four ball handlers this season including new addition of Junior Guard Ian Scwab and Sophomore Guard Bowen Walton from Holy Spirit.
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