Jaguar boy’s basketball team debuts new coach

Posted Thursday, November 16, 2017 3:17 pm

By Murray Gleffe, Correspondent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U83d7AM9qsk

ASHWAUBENON- The Ashwaubenon Jaguar boys basketball team has a new leader at the helm for its 2017-18 season.

Chris Karcz takes over the reins from John Miron who went 12-12 in his final season with the Jaguars.

Karcz isn’t new to the high school scene, however.

He brings plenty of experience from his days at Green Bay Southwest the last three years where he was the Head Coach of Aaron Moesch who plays his college ball currently for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Prior to that, he was a Freshman and JV coach at Pulaski for over ten years.

Head Coach Chris Karcz, “I’m excited to get started at Ashwaubenon. It’s a great opportunity for me. This year’s roster will have to work hard day in and day out. There will be some bumps along the road with them getting to know my philosophies, and vice versa. It is my hope that these kids are really playing their best basketball come March.”

Jaguar boys basketball coach Chris Karcz talking to the team

The cupboard is far from empty for Karcz, despite losing graduated seniors Ben Wittig, David Clark, and Ben Ratschan.

This year’s squad features the return of small forward Anthony Guarascio who finished last season with an 11.1 ppg average. Guarascio also led the team in rebounds corralling over six per game. Furthermore, he canned 31% of his three-point attempts, and hit on 75% of his free throws.

Guard/Forward Bryant Phillips returns to the team from a serious back injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last 20 games of his junior season.

Phillips poured in a team high 23 points last year vs Manitowoc in what turned out to be his last game of the season.

He hopes to return to form for his final season of eligibility.

Karcz comments, “Anthony and Bryant are excellent kids. They are very gifted athletically. We hope to get a lot of production out of them offensively this year.”

Senior power forward Kenneth Brooks adds bulk to the frontcourt.

Brooks averaged 3.3 ppg and 1.7 rpg last year. The Jaguars hope that he adds mightily to that total this year.

6’8 Junior Seth Muscavitch hopes to see his role increased in his second year of varsity play. His height alone will cause problems (on the defensive side) for the opponents.

Other returnees looking to carve out a key role on this year’s team include Griffin Baierl, Jeremy Cox, Evan Wood, and Will Adair.

“I bring over a man to man defensive scheme. However, we may have to dabble a bit with zone due to our limited height. We only have a couple of kids that are over 6’4 and that will be a challenge night in and night out. Offensively, nothing will change as to what the people have seen around here for the last few years. We will run motion, and hopefully our athleticism will provide some drives and finishes at the basket.” Karcz adds.

This year’s schedule includes the ever tough eighteen conference matchups with the likes of Notre Dame, De Pere, and Bay Port being touted as the favorites.

In addition, the Jaguars will play Seymour, West De Pere, and Wrightstown in non-conference games.

2017-18 Ashwaubenon Jaguar Boys Basketball Roster (As of Nov. 15)

Will Adair, Griffin Baierl, Kenneth Brooks, Jeremy Cox, Charlie Dolphin, Anthony Guarascio, Luke Hansford, Ian MacLean, Seth Muscavitch, Bryant Phillips, Alex Steinfest, Bennett Schuster, Marcus Wagner, Ben Wendorf, Evan Wood

2017-18 Ashwaubenon Jaguar Boys Basketball Schedule (All Games at 7 p.m. unless noted)

Nov. 21 vs Seymour

Nov. 28 vs West De Pere

Dec. 5 vs Green Bay West

Dec. 8 vs Sheboygan North

Dec. 12 at Manitowoc Lincoln

Dec. 14 vs Pulaski

Dec. 19 at Green Bay Southwest

Dec. 22 vs De Pere

Jan. 2 at Wrightstown 7:15 p.m.

Jan. 4 at Bay Port

Jan. 9 vs Green Bay Southwest