Hounds rebuilding after losing seven seniors

Building

It’s almost like starting at day one again. We’ve got to build some things back up. We just have guys that don’t have any (varsity) experience. So it’s about building confidence, building experience.”

Ryan Wilson, FMHS Boys Head Coach

Season opener

The Bloodhounds travel to Mt. Pleasant Friday night to start the 2022-23 season

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison High School’s boys basketball team is getting a little bit of a later start to the season.
It’s time that was needed for the Bloodhounds, who open the season on Friday at Mount Pleasant.
Fort Madison went 18-5 last season, spending time at No. 1 in the Class 3A state rankings, but the top seven scorers and rebounders on that team were all seniors. That’s more than 1,200 points and 625 rebounds lost.
“It’s almost like starting at day one again,” coach Ryan Wilson said. “We’ve got to build some things back up. We just have guys that don’t have any (varsity) experience. So it’s about building confidence, building experience.”
There are 29 players throughout the program, but only four are seniors. That requires a lot of teaching, although the Bloodhounds’ system remains unchanged. The roster number is impressive, but there’s a lot of education that’s still ahead.
“The kids have been great.,” Wilson said. “They’ve worked hard. I don’t see our effort ever being an issue. It’s just understanding situations and experience, things like that.”
Wilson went with a lineup of junior guards Carson Rashid and Leif Boeding, sophomore guard Julian Dear, senior forward Aidan Boyer and junior center Hunter Cresswell during a scrimmage last week. Sophomore center Dayton Lamar came off the bench to score 18 points.
“It’s how quickly can we gain experience,” Wilson said. “How quickly can we understand the game and the concepts, what our roles are, things like that.
“I have basically zero points, zero rebounds from last year. How quickly can we just figure that stuff out is going to be the key for us.”
The standard for the program was set last year, and it’s something that Wilson hopes carries over into this season.
“Last year was a special year,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t happen every year. It put Fort Madison back on the map for basketball. There’s a target there, right? Are we going to be 18-5 like last year? I don’t know. We’ll win as many games as we can, one at a time.
“There’s no reason we can’t get to that level at some point. It’s just going to take a buy-in on our part.”