As the winter sports season comes to a close and South Tama high school prepares to transition into the spring sports, many players and coaches have taken this time to reflect on the past few months of competition. This especially is the case of the STC boys basketball team who last week played their final game of the 2023-2024 season.

When talking about the season, the words breakout year have been brought out frequently as the boys team accomplished their highest winning season since 2018 and was noticed more competition in the tough WaMac conference. Every season has its highs and lows but for the South Tama basketball program and fans this year was one of the best in a long time.

The season started out with a lot of new changes and faces. First, STC basketball had a completely new coaching staff with Head Coach Craig Harrison, Assistant Coach Dave Wiese, and Assistant Coach Justin Gates all stepping up into first year coaching positions with the Trojans.

Also five of the eight players who started playing on the varsity level for the Trojans hadn’t participated in the sport or on the high school level in the previous year. So it took some time for both the coaches and players to come together completely as a team, and that was evident in their loss to Saydel in their first game of the year.

But luckily for the Trojans it didn’t take long to find success, as in their second game of the season they beat conference opponent Center Point-Urbana on a last second buzzer beater by senior Cade Rosenberger. This was South Tama first win against CPU since 2018 and according to the players was a favorite memory and confidence boost.

“Cade’s buzzer beater was probably my favorite moment from the year,” senior Daniel Wiese said. “It was the first time we beat CPU in my high school career and gave us tons of confidence going forward into the season.”

Before Christmas break the Trojans were a part of competitive games against Mount Vernon and East Marshall that both ended in a single digit loss. But in the last game before break the Trojans were able to get a win on the road against Vinton, which was the first conference road win since 2021 and provided momentum going into the second half of the season.

“All the road wins were always some of my favorite moments for the season,” Harrison said. “especially conference road wins because those are hard to get in the WaMac.”

As the second half of the season got underway the Trojans faced off against some of the highest ranked teams in Class 3A. This included close losses to the Solon, Clear Creek-Amana, and Williamsburg who all eventually earned top seeds in the playoffs. Even though losses are never fun for a team it really helped prepare the Trojans fot the end of the season as more winnable games came up on the schedule.

In the final three weeks of the regular season, the Trojans achieved a 6-4 record which included two conference sweeps against the Benton Bobcats and Vinton Vikings. It was during this time that the team really performed at their best, especially on the defensive end only allowing 51.7 points per game which ranks in the top five in the WaMac conference this season.

South Tama’s season officially came to an end in their first round playoff matchup against the Grinnell Tigers. The Tigers had already defeated the Trojans twice earlier in the year and after a competitive first half was able to pull away for the win.

With the season all wrapped up, senior Tommy Tyynismaa led the Trojans in scoring with 11.2 point per game, followed by freshman Emerson Bridgewater with 9.8. Bridgewater also led the team in rebounds with 7.4 per game. Rosenberger led the Trojans in assists, averaging 3.6 per game. Both Tyynismaa and Rosenberger also received WaMac all conference 2nd team honors.

When asked about what he was proud of from the season, Coach Harrison had this to say.

“I think we won a lot more games than people expected which is always something to be proud of and I’m really proud of the seniors that showed up to play and were great leaders throughout the season,” he said.

Team captain Daniel Wiese also had positive things to say about the season.

“It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a season,” Wiese said. “Harrison really connected with the team well and it was a great team environment to be a part of.”

Team captain Cade Rosenberger also added similar thoughts.

“Team morale and leadership was the best it’s ever been in all the years I’ve played, and we really had a strong group of guys that were able to push each other and find success. Overall, it was a great breakout season for South Tama basketball.”