BRODHEAD — The Cardinals finished last season 8-15 overall, but just 5-13 in conference play. Yet, optimism is emerging for the Brodhead faithful headed into the upcoming winter season.

“No one really knows what this season is going to bring, but I do have high expectations for this group, due to every one of them having varsity experience,” said Tommy Meier, Brodhead head coach.

Brodhead finished third to last in the 10-team conference in the win column — last in points allowed, but third from the top in scoring. “That can’t happen again this year if we want to win games,” Meier said.

The program lost just one senior to graduation: Cody Malcook, who averaged 8. 6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. The rest of the team returns — including a couple of players that were having big seasons before getting injured.

“I think that is going to be huge for us in being able to compete in every game. A goal for us would be to finish in the top half of the conference,” Meier said.

Those coming back include honorable mention all-conference players Connor Green (12.3 ppg) and Owen Leifker (12.6 ppg), as well as Cade Walker (8.6 ppg), Brady Malkow (7.6 ppg, 8.4 rpg), Devon Anderson (4.4 ppg), Chase Harnack (3.7 ppg), Josiah Engen (8.5 ppg) and Ben Knuth (1.4 ppg). Engen was a state qualifying high jumper as a freshman and put on a show of circus dunks in his 10 games before a broken leg ended his season. Knuth, a solid body in the post, played just 9 games before being lost to a torn ACL.

Of those coming back, Leifker may create the most buzz. Just a junior, Leifker finished as the top 3-point shooter in Division 3 (65 of 134, 49%) and was invited to be one of the two boys D3 contestants in the WIAA 3-point challenge at the state tournament. However, the WIAA canceled the tournament due to the COVID-19 outbreak a week before the challenge was scheduled to take place.

Meier said he sees ballhandling and outside shooting as two of his team’s strengths, given the amount of talent at the guard position returning. That also means play in the post poses a challenge.

“We are a smaller team with a ton of guards and no true big man. Our tallest guy might be 6-1 on a good day. That makes it very difficult to compete in the Rock Valley, as it seems everyone has a few big men, and even their guards are good sized,” Meier said. “We need to learn to play big and be physical and improve on the defensive side of the ball.”

Even though East Troy graduated the league’s top scorer and player of the year AJ Vukovich, an Arizona Diamondbacks draftee, Meier thinks the Trojans are still the team to beat. 

“East Troy is always the team to beat year in and year out. They have a heck of a program over there and are always tough,” Meier said. “Right after them would be Edgerton. Same with them, they have a solid program that is always right there at the top. I would also expect Turner to be pretty solid. They graduated a ton of seniors but made it to the sectional final game before getting shut down, and I expect them to build off of that.”