As fall sports have come to an end, winter sports are just starting. The winter sports at Hickman have just started their seasons and have shown promise at the beginning of their seasons.
Some of the players of Hickman’s basketball and wrestling teams have given some insight into their seasons so far and their goals moving forward.
Hickman’s men’s basketball team is 6-1 so far this season, and looking to build on the strong start of the season.
Senior shooting guard Langston Stroupe and junior center Brock Camp talked about the team’s early success and what they want to achieve this season.
Langston still isn’t satisfied with the season though.
“I think the season has gone okay, we dropped the early game that we probably shouldn’t have, but we’re getting better and we’re really developing and hoping to make a late run in the playoffs at the end of the season,” he said.
Their singular loss this season was against McCluer High School who have a 1-4 record so far this season.
When asked about what may have influenced the results of the game, Langston said, “I think definitely the mistakes were easily fixable. I think we kind of looked past our opponent, which is a simple fix, I think our effort wasn’t there in the game. I think we were more talented than the other team but we just didn’t come to play that day. That’s something we can’t do moving forward.”
Even with the loss, Langston still has extreme confidence in himself and his team.
“I think that this season, we have some high expectations,” he said. “[The team’s] goal is to win a district championship… for myself… probably make all-conference first team, all-district team.”
Brock Camp added on with his thoughts on what this season could hold for the Kewpies.
Brock has high thoughts on this team, saying with a grin, “We want to win districts, we want to win CMAC, and I know anything we want, we can do, and I want to win state.”
Brock also compared what’s different about this team compared to the other Hickman teams he’s played with.
“I feel like this year we have a lot of seniors in the varsity roster, so I feel like there’s more experience than the other years and I feel like we’ve all gotten way better from last year,” he stated.
On the woman’s side, they’ve had a similar start. With a 4-1 record so far, the Kewpies have been winning in dominant fashion with a +111 point differential in just five games. They’re doing this with only two seniors on the team, so the future of the Kewpies going forward looks promising.
Junior guard Caroline Eastman was talking about how this season is different from seasons in the recent past.
“This season we’re a little bit smaller in size than last season, we’ve had some more height, but I think overall our driving competitiveness and want to win is still there,” she said.
The Kewpies have been playing like a team all season, showing you don’t need massive size or strength to win games. They have stuck together to win and blow out opponents.
Caroline talked about what she wants to be this season, “Just being a solid player and just being able to contribute to the team as much as I can.”
She has some goals for the team, though, striving to be the best they can and put up a memorable season.
Caroline said that some of her goals for the team are to, “Win districts, because our district run has been pretty short in the past two years and definitely beating Rockbridge and winning our CMAC conference.”
Moving to wrestling which has some of the most promise this season, being ranked fourth in the state already with a dominating performance against #5 Helias, winning 59-21. The wrestling team has been great this year and needs some more credit.
Senior wrestler Dalton Becklenburg was talking about how the season has gone so far.
“Our whole team’s doing pretty good this year. We have a lot of new kids who have a lot of potential. It’s been rough on some people, but for most, it’s been [a] pretty solid so far,” he said with a grin.
With the start of the season going so well, one of the inevitable things to do is think about what this season could end with.
Dalton said what he wants from this season for his team is “to place high as a team at state you know, with team points and whatnot. Good morale, just having fun.”
Dalton compared this season to the ones he’s experienced so far.
“It’s kind of just started, so I don’t really know yet, but I mean, our rooms are a lot more full this year. We actually have a full lineup this year, which we’ve had to push up JV kids, but yeah, I think this year is probably one of [the] more successful years for sure,” he stated.
Senior Luke Waldron also talked about the season and gave us his input on how this season might be different.
“So far, we had four people win the first tournament of the year and we’re 2-0 for duels so far. There’s a lot of young talent in the room and we’re used to having a bunch of older, like seniors that are really the good ones, but it’s a bunch of young people now,” Luke said.
Luke also has a little brother, Beau. They are both on the team now, and Beau, being a freshman, is competing very well.
Luke talked about what it is like having his brother on the team.
“It’s pretty fun, I get to beat him up and it just makes the atmosphere a lot better. Just having a brotherly bond in the room just pulls everybody together,” he said.
Everybody has had great starts this season and are only projecting upward. All of these goals are definitely reachable for the Kewpies and be on the lookout for when they come true.
