By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
On the heels of a thrilling 19-5 season that saw them punch a ticket to the 2A state tournament, the Bennington Boys basketball team will look to take their program to new heights in 2023-24.
Curtis Pickering returns once again to lead the Bulldogs in his eighth season at the helm.
This year’s Bennington squad returns all five starters from last year’s state team and will be eager to get back on the hardwood with a starting five that should look familiar come tip-off.
- Eli Lawson (Sr)
- Talan Pickering (Sr)
- Mister Smith (Sr)
- Kian Wilson (Jr)
- Payge Rodenbeek (Jr)
The Bulldogs will also look for big rotational minutes off the bench out of senior Cooper Matthews, juniors Brayden Palenske and Thayne Trout, and sophomore Isaiah Garrett
Ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, we had a chance to catch up with Coach Pickering and get his thoughts on this year’s squad.
Q: When you had a chance to look back on it, what were your overall thoughts on last season?
A: Last year was the next step for this group and as we got going we became hungrier and hungrier to win the whole thing. Unfortunately, we had some bad luck and played some bad basketball down the stretch but it was a stepping stone and another successful season.
Q: Entering this year, what would you say are the biggest known strengths of your team?
A: Our experience and physicality should be our strengths. These kids are becoming young men and hopefully, that can help us in games. We lost a few key players off the bench but I feel comfortable about our depth and some of the new guys that will step in for us.
Q: What are the biggest looming questions or challenges that you’ll look to sort out in these first few weeks?
A: We’re still looking to prove our physicality this year. We ran into some adversity but hopefully, we can adjust and continue improving across the board and utilize everybody’s strengths.
Q: What are the biggest goals and expectations for this group heading into the new season?
A: This group has been so competitive since they were little and these kids played together on a summer team that goes all the way back to third and fourth grade. Now they have expectations for themselves, they want to go undefeated in league, they want to win another sub-state championship and they want to go to and win state. They feel they have an opportunity to do that with the work that they’ve put in.
The Bulldogs open their season in Bennington with a home game against Sylvan-Lucas this Friday.