BAXTER — Collins-Maxwell-Baxter head boys

BAXTER — Collins-Maxwell-Baxter head boys basketball coach Mark McKenna took over the Raider program last year and had an assortment of experienced seniors to work with.

But with nearly his entire varsity roster gone from last year, McKenna now gets to build his own foundation and will do so with two returning starters and a couple of players who saw minimal varsity action last season.

“The new kids coming up have a lot of potential,” McKenna said. “They are hard working, and they play well together.”

Returning from successful junior seasons last year will be seniors Dylan Hansen and Ethan Schmidt.

Hansen was the team’s leading scorer at 9.5 points per game last year. He is quick, athletic and can beat you off the dribble or on the fastbreak but has lethal 3-point range. His biggest issue last season was consistency. He would have 25 points one night and five the next.

“We want Dylan to step up every night,” McKenna said. “He is a good player, but we’ll need more consistency this year. And that will help a lot if he can do that.”

Schmidt was a starter and averaged 2.8 points per game a season ago but also was second on the team in rebounding behind departed senior Danny Samson. He also is athletic, tall and can beat you in a lot of different ways.

“He is the glue that holds the team together,” McKenna said. “And he is our best defender.”

The only other player to see varsity action last year was senior Marcus Schmidt. McKenna said Marcus Schmidt does a lot of things well and that expectations for him have grown coming into this year.

The rest of the varsity lineup will be filled by plenty of inexperienced, but McKenna likes the potential of his younger players. Included in that list of younger players are juniors Lee Robinson, Logan Gibbs and Kyle Zeiser and sophomores Josh Zeiser, Andrew Broderick and Cody Schmitz.

McKenna sites athletic ability, quickness and good shooting as strengths this year, while overall team size as a weakness.

“We won’t be very tall, but that is not something any of us have any control over,” McKenna said. “They will be able to push the ball up the floor and we’ll have some pretty good shooters, too.”