Alcester Union & Hudsonite Online

Alcester-Hudson boy's varsity team members include (front row, l to r) Matt Schempp, Jon Rodriguez, Eric Anderson, Jacob Busch, Austin Skoglund, (back row, l to r) Chris Simunek, Todd Anderson, Eric Tabbert, Eric Beeler and Trent Neu. (Photo by Paul Buum, Editor/Publisher)

ALCESTER – Consistency is the key to progress, and Alcester-Hudson head boy’s basketball coach Josh Hofer thinks he can get that out of this year’s squad.

“The boys have been working hard in practice and I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far,” Hofer said. “If these guys use their heads and play consistent basketball, I don’t see any reason why they can’t have at least a 500 season.”

That’s a pretty bold prediction considering the Cubs have put only a few notches in the win column during the past few seasons.

Although the Cubs lost most of last season’s starters to graduation, several other players saw significant varsity play last season, and a group moving up from a JV squad that went 9-7 last year will produce a team that Hofer expects to see results from.

“We don’t have much height, but we have some pretty good quickness and speed that will help us out,” Hofer said.

And speaking of consistency, that’s exactly what Hofer has as far as height goes in his top six or seven players.

“We’re pretty much 6’1” across the board,” Hofer said.

The Cubs will need to depend on strong penetration underneath the basket and quickness around the perimeter to overcome with any height disadvantage the Cubs will likely see during the season.

Leading this year’s squad will be seniors Eric Tabbert, Trent Neu and Todd Anderson.

Tabbert and Neu bring varsity experience to the team after seeing significant playing time on last year’s squad, where Tabbert tallied 69 points, had six blocked shots and pulled down 53 rebounds. Neu pulled down 101 rebounds and scored 66 points last season.

Junior Matt Schempp also brings varsity experience to the team after scoring 39 points and pulling down 28 rebounds last season.

Todd Anderson led the JV squad in scoring last season with 182 points, and also saw varsity action. Eric Anderson also saw some significant time on the floor with the JV squad last season, putting in an even 100 points.

The Cubs open their season Saturday as they travel to Viborg to take on the Vikings. Their home opener is next Thursday, December 13 as they host Parker in a girls and boys double-header.

In a bit of irony, one thing that will be inconsistent this season will be in the coaching staff.

Hofer, starting his third season as head coach, just announced that he will be resigning from his coaching duties next month to take a job in Des Moines, IA. Hofer manages the data processing center at the State Bank of Alcester, which processes data for the bank as well as several other banks in the area. A decision was made recently by the bank that they will no longer be doing data processing for other banks.

Assistant coach Brent Ripperda will take over as head coach, and a new assistant coach has not yet been named.

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