West Bend-Mallard has one of the state’s top football programs but the school’s basketball team is on the verge of posting an unbeaten regular season. The Wolverines are 18-0 and fifth ranked in the class 1A Radio Iowa poll heading into the final week of the season after a 54-46 win over Armstrong-Ringsted last Friday night.
The Wolverines have won four state football championships and the basketball season comes on the heels of a football season in which they finished as the runner-up in class A. Basketball coach Jerry Vanderhorst says they had 11 seniors coming back who had played a lot of basketball and he says he knew the potential was there, but not to this extreme.
Vanerhorst says defense has been the key as they’re giving up only about 38 points a game and he says they’re not an offensive juggernaut. He says they work on the defense and hopefully the offense will take care of itself. Vanderhorst says the school has a number of good athletes and says it is not a surprise they excel at more than just football. He says the athletes like to compete and the football season has carried over to basketball with some victories.
Vanderhorst says they have a tough district tournament ahead of them as they will play all conference teams that they have played in tough games. The Wolverines return to action tomorrow night at Northwest Webster.