After a season that ended in the boys and girls basketball teams achieving their highest ever finishes at the state tournament, the teams are transitioning and adjusting to the loss of the seniors who helped lead both teams.

Last year, the boys team took third at state with a 75-70 win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, led by Nathan Stacy,  who holds multiple school records. Led by senior leading scorers Tanner Tripp and Stephanie Lichtenauer, the girls team took second after a one-point loss in the championship game against St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

“[The seniors] really instilled the idea that with hard work and the right attitude, you can accomplish anything,” junior guard Mitch Perkins said. “They were here for all four years and they kind of built a foundation for what we do on the court now.”

Senior power forward Carly Eaton said the girls team has had to make multiple changes after losing its seniors.

“What we’ve had to do is reestablish leaders, and we’ve had to completely revamp our offense,” Eaton said. “We’ve had to figure out what positions people have to do; I had to change positions from last year. JV and varsity … don’t have the same core plays, so JV had to learn what varsity does.”

Eaton had to make the transition from a regular player to being a team leader.

“[It’s different] because I was the only one coming back from varsity, lettering,” Eaton said. “I’ve had to take the role of captain. I’m the only one that’s been there for awhile. It’s harder because I have to be responsible for more than one position, knowing what everybody else has to do. It’s just weird because last year I was at the bottom of the food chain, and now I’m at the top; I was never in the middle.”

Senior center Laurel Knust also had to take on a leadership role, although she says she does not have as much varsity experience.

“With there only being three seniors and most of us not having much [varsity] playing time, we have new roles of making sure practices run smoothly and being prepared for game day and keeping the hype in the team … It’s a lot harder becasue during practices you’re on the court almost the entire time,” Knust said. “It’s a new level of aggressiveness, and we just have to make sure we keep up with it.”

Head boys basketball coach Justin Bogart has been working to get the new team to realize that it can be successful even with the loss of last year’s seniors.

“We emphasize being tough, playing together and being all-in which means that every second of every practice, every second of every game you are locked in, focused and ready to be the best athlete you can be,” Bogart said. “They are the ones that are ultimately responsible for demonstrating [how successful they can be] through their actions.”

After the success of last year’s boys team, Perkins is excited to prove the abilities of the new team.

“It’s a lot of pressure to succeed and to continue with what they left off with, but at the same time it’s a nice challenge that I look forward to achieving,” Perkins said.

Following a successful junior season, senior guard Wyatt Voorhes is looking forward to taking  on the role that the previous seniors held.

“I think [last year’s seniors] really set the bar for this year’s team,” Voorhes said. “As a senior on the team, I’m just excited to be able to be a leader this season.”

Knust is also excited, saying she thinks the girls team will do better than people may think.

“I think we’re going to be a lot better than everybody expects,” Knust said. “People don’t realize that other schools had seniors who graduated too, so we’ll be playing the freshmen, sophomores and juniors we played our other years. Basically, nobody thinks we will be any decent this year, and we just want to prove them wrong.”