As the fall sports season comes to a close, athletes and coaches alike are gearing up for what the next season has in store. Winter sports include boys swim, girls and boys basketball, and wrestling.

Boys Swim:
The Marlin’s co-op swim team, coached by Ryan Heft, were lucky that they didn’t graduate many seniors last year, allowing for this year to potentially be very successful. Multiple seasons in the program has led to a strong group of swimmers. Coach Heft is excited to see how the hard work put into the years will pay off, “We have really built up the amount of depth that our team has, rather than just a few key front runners, which will definitely help us out in dual meets.”

Some of these frontrunners include senior captains Auggie Brenzel, Sebastian Swiderski, and Alex Weiss (IKE). Other strong swimmers will be senior Michael Klein, juniors Dane Detert, Kunal Sondhi, and Matt Thomas, and sophomores Alex Borchardt and Ian Gatzke (IKE). There are also underclassman who will bring some talent to the program. Hopefully this combination will prove to be as successful as they hope it to be.

Girls Basketball:
Last season the Lady Vikings, coached by Jef Radtke, proved many wrong, as they made a deep run in the road to state. They defeated top ranked Pewaukee, Eisenhower, and competed strongly with state champion Pius XI. However, the Vikings realize that things can and will change drastically between the two years. They graduated seven seniors and had some promising juniors leave the program. They’ll need to maximize the talent they have this year. Radtke states, “We need to be good teammates and competitively mature… That requires an unconditional commitment to each other.”

Additions to this year’s team are juniors Lily Adkison, Skylar Berens, and Ruwandi Wijenayake and sophomores Maddie Fritz and Lauren Kunz. Ultimately, Coach Radtke hopes, “We all dribble in the right direction.”

Wrestling:
Wrestling, coached by Patrick Detmer is another New Berlin co-op team gearing up for their season. Last year the team only graduated two starter seniors. Not to mention they have 12 returning varsity wrestlers. Expectations are high for seniors Cam Jakubowski, Brenton Kryzsak, and Jack Hanley. Detmer hopes their years of experience will both motivate the team and lead them to the sectional tournament. His main goal however, is that “this helps propel us to the top of the standings in the Woodland Conference.”

Boys Basketball:
With the rocky season the team had last year, first-year coach Brandon Mattox really hopes to just improve every day, whether that’s in the gym, weight-room, or the classroom. The Vikings graduated 6 key seniors, but with the right mindset and due to summer training, all players this year could be vital. With the determination and rich history the program has, Coach Mattox says, “I am very optimistic about the coaching staff that is in place and the group of young men we have in our program.”