By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – A year ago, the Green Bay N.E.W. Lutheran boys’ basketball squad was flush with leadership and experience.
Led by a group of eight seniors, including Packerland Conference Player of the Year Samuel Meerstein, the Blazers advanced to the WIAA Division 5 sectional finals but lost a 79-69 game to Columbus Catholic.
N.E.W. Lutheran had a 16-11 overall record and a 9-7 mark in the conference in 2018-19, which was good enough for fourth place in the nine-team Packerland.
This season, things will look different for the Blazers.
The core group of seniors that brought the team success last year won’t be around to provide leadership and scoring.
N.E.W. Lutheran will have to replace the 6-foot-4 Meerstein, who is now playing his ball at Division III UW-Platteville.
He averaged a robust 20.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per contest.
In addition to Meerstein, N.E.W. Lutheran also lost Rajni Bullock (2.2), Jacob Champeau (8.6), Lucas Bukowski (10.6), Sam Gast, Samson Huntowski and Adam Gosse (3.8) to graduation.
The seniors from last year’s squad accounted for almost 50 points a game.
“We’re going to rely on solid leadership on and off the court,” said head coach Mark Meerstein. “It’s something we stress. We recently talked about our leadership. There’s nobody from last year’s group that’s going to help us this season. It’s going to come down to us growing and how we are going to respond to all of this as a team. No doubt we’ll go through some growing pains early – we have to play a lot stronger than we look.”
The Blazers will be bringing up several underclassmen this season.
In addition to Tristan Lynch and forward Caleb Gosse being called up early, another of coach Meerstein’s sons, Elijah Meerstein, who is one of the team’s best ball handlers, will be at a guard spot.
Meerstein will look to distribute the basketball and score as well.
Coach Meerstein said Zach Luepke, a 5-foot-11 senior, will be a key factor in the leadership structure of this season’s team.
Despite the fact he’s currently not up to full speed as he fully recovers from an injury he sustained during the football season, Luepke plays a lot bigger than his body size might indicate.
As a junior, the team discovered he was a solid post defender.
Marshall Bukowski, a 6-foot-3 junior who started for N.E.W. Lutheran last season, played some varsity minutes as a freshman.
“We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team who are going to be working hard to get where they need to be,” Meerstein said. “They’ve got some good leadership skills, so we’re looking forward to seeing what they can do. Honestly, we’re a long way from where we want to be right now.”
Green Bay N.E.W. Lutheran boys’ basketball schedule
12/3 – Two Rivers
12/5 – Southern Door
12/10 – @ Sturgeon Bay
12/13 – Algoma
12/19 – @ Gibraltar
12/26 – Hilbert – 10:30 a.m.
1/3 – Kewaunee
1/7 – @ Sheboygan Christian – 7:15 p.m.
1/11 – @ Oconto
1/14 – @ Bowler
1/17 – Peshtigo
1/21 – @ Sevastopol
1/24 – @ Southern Door
1/28 – Sturgeon Bay
1/30 – @ Algoma
2/4 – Shiocton
2/7 – Gibraltar
2/13 – @ Kewaunee
2/17 – @ Weyauwega-Fremont
2/21 – Oconto
2/24 – @ Peshtigo
2/27 – Sevastopol
Editor’s note: All games begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.