It was a tough basketball season for the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders.
Led by coach Darrin Scott, the Crusaders finished the season with a record of 7-18 on a 58-48 first-round district loss to Greenville. Despite what the numbers say, Scott described it as somewhat of a success.
“They got a lot of new experience,” said Scott, in his first year at Saxony Lutheran. “We had a lot of close games that we ended up losing, and they had to overcome more adversity because of that. They're a really good group of kids, They worked really hard and improved a ton as the year went on. A really, really likable group, enjoyable to coach.
The Crusaders were limited in upperclassmen this season, with only three seniors — Owen Buchheit, Austin Hunt, and Jackson Wilson — on the active roster, while a fourth, Wesley Kiehne, was injured and unable to play.
Scott had nothing but praise for the trio that got to see time on the court.
“I just really liked their leadership," Scott said. "They came to practice every day ready to work. I think they really bought into what we were trying to do. Really just so coachable. I think that's the biggest thing. They just did whatever they could to try to help the team. Extremely coachable. The adjustments that we made throughout the year just to try to put them in position, they were always ready to try.
“I was really happy with them, and I felt like their last game of the year against Greenville was one of their better games. They played really well.”
That last game was a 58-48 first-round loss in the district tournament. According to Scott, there were a number of other games that could have easily ended differently, including three overtime games.
Among those three, the Crusaders lost 64-66 to Ste. Genevieve, 48-47 to Acadia Valley and beat Kingston 42-36.
“One or two possessions and we could have done a little bit better,” Scott said. “You never know how that affects the whole season.”
Looking ahead, Scott is eager to work with his returning players over the summer for the first time and continue laying the groundwork for next year.
“I think they're going to work hard,” Scott said. “They're going to improve. And yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next year.”
Scott took over coaching duties in September, which only gave him a few months before the season started in earnest. Having a full year, he said, could have made a difference.
“It made it more difficult, you know, just getting to know the kids, finding out what they're good at, you know, a lot of things that I think we figured out later in the year,” Scott said of his late start. “Maybe we would have figured out sooner if I could have been around sooner. But yeah, so that's that made it a little bit tougher.”
Looking ahead to next year, Scott explained that he has his sights set on helping the team improve by building on the lessons the learned this season.
“I felt one thing I was happy with was we progressed defensively and did some good things and we really want to build on that,” Scott said. “We'd like to be a great defensive team. We rebounded much better as the year went on, so that's another point of emphasis, if we can be a great rebounding team. And then offensively, we'll see how the summer goes, but basically we hope to improve our shooting, ball handling and passing with the guys we got coming back. I think one of the things that we got better at, but we can still improve on, is just our ability to pass and share the basketball.”
