Boys Basketball Looking Forward From Past Success

By Alex Freese

The Potosi Boys basketball team had a remarkable season last year, ending the season undefeated in conference.  However, in the playoffs, they ran into out-of-conference foe Southwestern. At the end of the game, Southwestern defeated Potosi with a last-second shot. Coach Uppena thought that the season was a good one because of how his team came together and were conference champs.  In addition, they went undefeated, which is not an easy task with the conference they are in. Coach Uppena said, “Unfortunately we got beat way too early in the tournament and that was one of the toughest things that everyone had to deal with.” They lost to Southwestern, which was a 7 seed coming into that game against the Chieftains.  Southwestern would later come out of the sectional, beating Seneca in double overtime 67-66. Coach Uppena’s plan coming into this basketball season is to not let the season end the way it did last year.

Uppena has had the same team with a few additions over the last two seasons.  In those two seasons, his teams had records of 16-9 and 18-6. In that 18-6 season, the Chieftains won the conference. Uppena talked about how in those seasons he gained trust in the players and the players gained the trust in him. Uppena talked about playing time going along with trust, having that trust and knowing what that player can do on the court.

The types of adversity the team had to go through were certainly tough. One of the biggest challenges Uppena had to deal with was the loss of his mom. When they had the wake, the team came and supported their coach and his family, which meant a lot to the Uppena family. A couple players made a few bad decisions over the year.   Player behavior can certainly hurt the team and they have to learn from that. Coach Uppena talked about how those types of things can affect the team when they are rolling along and everything is clicking, then someone makes a poor choice and the “rolling along feeling” comes to a screeching halt.

According to Coach Uppena, one of the toughest things about being the head coach at Potosi is the judgment that people place on you, and not being able to make everyone happy.  How much playing time a player gets is always a big concern to everyone involved.

           Before the 16-17 season, basketball player Ryan Kruser tore his ACL in football and was not able to play his favorite sport. When he came back in 17-18, Kruser was ready to blow some minds with the work he put in on the offseason. He said about that comeback season, “I had a fun time, the team had some talent, and we had good coaches.”

Coach Uppena wasn’t surprised at the performance that Ryan put on in the season he came back. “Ryan would have played his freshman year on varsity, but he got hurt in football and sat out the whole year,” Uppena said. Out of all the negatives that happened that season, Uppena says they got better. The team he has coming back in the 2018-19 season has a lot of experience up and down the line-up. Also his team is getting ready for the season by lifting weights and taking shots in the gym more than any team he has coached this far. He believes there is still more work that needs to be done.

Cuba City and Southwestern are two of the teams that Uppena can’t wait to go up against this year. Uppena likes the tough competition in those teams, but really he can’t wait to play Highland in the first game of the year for the Chieftains, and really he can’t wait to play everyone. The expectations for this Chieftain basketball team are set pretty high from what they accomplished last year. Uppena’s expectation for the 18-19 team is to repeat as undefeated conference champs and go as far as possible in the tournament as they can.  While those are big goals, they certainly have the tools to do that. They have to be focused every day in practice and, Uppena said, “They have to play every day as if they could not play tomorrow.”