Hornets to host LP-A on Saturday afternoon in regular season opener

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning boys basketball team will have experience on their side when they kick off the 2024-25 regular season on Saturday afternoon. The Hornets will host Lake Park-Audubon in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon over the Thanksgiving break. 

The Hornets return six of their seven rotational players from last season’s 26-3 team that won its second straight Park Region Conference with a perfect 14-0 record and finished as the sub section runner up in a loaded Section 6A. The section will once again feature a top heavy group of teams with head coach Randy Misegades stating Ada-Borup West, Park Christian, Underwood, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa and West Central all having a chance to win the section title, while Pillager, Verndale and Sebeka being among the ones to watch in the conference.

The Hornets return their top four scorers from last season’s team, all of whom were named as all-conference. While they will miss their lone senior from last year in Lane Dilly, Henning will have quite a bit of fire power on the offensive end of the court during the upcoming season. The Hornets will return seniors Teigan Bjerke, Logan Kostelecky, Noah Umland and Dawson Misegades; as well as juniors Kale Misegades and Ryan Despard who all logged extensive minutes last season. 

In addition to the returning players, the Hornets have a number of key and upcoming players including: seniors: Devan Wiederich and Mason Samuelson; juniors Dawson Bushman and Andrew Suchy; sophomores Todd Bjerke, Zach Wiedrich and Beck Thorson; as well as Eli Reinbold who was a rotational player in 2023, but did not go out for basketball last year. He will return to the Hornets for his senior season. 

With so much experience and posting an impressive 54-5 record over the past two seasons, head coach Randy Misegades said the Hornets have some lofty goals for the upcoming season. However, some of the goals go far-beyond wins and losses on the basketball court.

“We have very lofty expectations for this season. First and foremost, our primary purpose is to develop great students, citizens, classmates, teammates, sons, and brothers. We expect our guys to have great attitudes and give a great effort each and every day,” he said. “We will dedicate a great deal of time to skill development during practice. We expect to compete for conference, subsection, and section titles.”

Henning will open its regular season on Saturday afternoon when they host Lake Park-Audubon at 2:30 p.m.