With four of the five starters from the Hamilton boys basketball team having graduated in June, the summer season is a time for their replacements to get some experience.
Teams from Hamilton are playing on Sundays at Carroll College, Mondays at Arrowhead and Wednesdays at Waukesha West. Hamilton hosted a summer tournament June 25, will play at Waukesha South July 9 and at a two-Thursday tournament at Sun Prairie toward the end of July.
“We’re young and we need to get these kids a lot of experience playing against some varsity competition,” Hamilton Coach Andy Cerroni said. Cerroni noted that Brandon Hagenow will be the only player returning this winter with any experience starting on varsity.
“It’s baptism by fire for our kids,” Cerroni said. “Tonight we battled, we got better. That’s our goal every time we take the floor.”
Cerroni said that physically the players have a little ways to go but they have skills. The summer will the opportunity for those players to get better.
“We’ll compete, we always do,” Cerroni said. “One thing about Hamilton kids: We got tough kids and we got kids who know how to work hard.”
—By Thomas J. McKillen, Managing Editor