By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
After a disappointing 8-13 season, the Chapman boys basketball team is eager to lay the groundwork for a brighter tomorrow with new management at the helm.
Andrew Kraxner has joined the Irish as the program’s new head basketball coach, taking the reigns from Drew Gruver.\
This year’s Irish certainly won’t be lacking in the veteran department, as Chapman’s rotation features exclusively juniors and seniors.
The starting five will feature a trio of seniors in Ayden Muniz, Drew Elliott and Jed Moody, alongside a pair of juniors in Talon Decker and Brecken Francis.
Off the bench Chapman will look for big minutes out of two more juniors in Jacob Gfeller and Connor Cote-Boss.
We had a chance to catch up with Coach Kraxner and get his thoughts on the team ahead of the new season.
Q: What is your vision for the culture of boys basketball here at Chapman?
A: We want to establish and build a culture here at Chapman throughout the year and set the standards and expectations in place. We also want to think about the big picture even beyond this season and I’ve been transparent about that with my players. Our seniors have had a lot of mature conversations about what this season needs to look like and what they want this program to look even 10 years from now.
Q: What feels like the biggest strength of this year’s team ahead of the first game?
A: I feel really good about our defense. We’ve been pushing that in the early part of our season through preseason practice, and defense is our main focus. Hopefully, we can take ownership of that.
Q: What are the biggest question marks you have for this team?
A: We don’t have a lot of varsity experience which could work in our favor in some ways but we graduated 95% of our scoring from last years team. I have a lot of guys that can get us 8 points a night but I don’t have anybody that can get us 20 points a game so we have to play defense with a lot of pride.
Q: What are the biggest goals and expectations this team hopes to achieve this year?
A: We’ve talked about our goals, and we want to be a competitive team with a good environment and culture. We want to compete on the floor and give ourselves chances to win. We don’t want Chapman to beat Chapman this year and we have to do the things we need to handle well.
The Irish will open their season at home when the Irish Classic gets underway on Friday night.