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turned out for boys basketball
There are 18 players out for the Prairie boys basketball team this year with just 1 starter back from last year’s varsity team. 
Chad Arnzen, one of 3 seniors on the squad, is the lone returning starter from the team that finished second in league and third in district last year. Mat Forsmann, a junior, is the only other player on the team who saw any real varsity action last year and he was a swing player between the JV and varsity. Seth Crane, another junior, saw limited varsity action last season. Up from last year’s JV squad are seniors Kelby Wilson and Kevin Funke, juniors Phil Henry and Sean Daly and sophomores Corey Schaeffer, Ryan Daly and Jacob Holthaus. Henry, Holthaus and Ryan Daly will also see some JV time this season. They may also get more varsity action than expected early on as Forsmann is out for the next couple of weeks with a badly sprained ankle suffered in practice last week. Coach Jerry Uhling says they hope to get him back for the Prairie Christmas Tournament Dec. 17. Uhling figures the Pirates should be competitive for the South Pod championship with Nezperce. He sees North Pod teams Lapwai and Troy as the teams to beat with Genesee, Nezperce and Prairie likely battling for the third seed to state. The Pirates should be solid inside with Arnzen and Crane but could struggle some at guard, especially until Forsmann heals. The Pirates saw their first action this past Tuesday night at Grangeville in a matchup of teams with a lot of turnover from last year. Uhling said the only player back from last year’s Grangeville varsity is out with an injury. They travel to Kellogg this Friday and Saturday for the Silver Valley Tournament. A quirk in the schedule has the Pirates playing only 1 league game before the first of the year, that at Highland on the 11th. Also their only home games before the 1st of the year are during the Prairie Christmas Tournament Dec. 17 and 18. Players on the JV this year in addition to the 3 players mentioned earlier are juniors Chris Schumacher, Jared Nau and Sam Forsmann and sophomores Nate Kaschmitter, Daniel Sigler, Ben Schumacher, J.D. Riener and Ben Forsmann. There are no freshmen out this year. Steve Wilson will continue to be the JV coach with Pat Holthaus assisting. Wrestling has light turnout There were just 6 out for the Prairie wrestling team as of Monday, Nov. 29 although there were 2 or 3 others that may join the team. 
The team is headed by returning seniors Nick Uhlenkott and Shane Poxleitner, who both qualified for state last year with Uhlenkott earning a 5th place medal. Tony Duman, a sophomore, also qualified for state last season. Another returnee is sophomore Richard Sonnen. There are 2 freshmen currently out. They are Jake Wimer and Kenneth Enneking. Ronald George and Thomas Nau were another pair of freshmen who may join the team and junior Dan Enneking may also join the team. The wrestling team will be the squad least affected by the school’s drop to the 1-A classification, at least until they get to state. At District they’ll still compete against the same schools as in the past at the 2-A level and their matches at state will be against a mixture of 1-A and 2-A schools. The only difference at state would be the competition for team medals. Coach Steve Lamont says last year Prairie would have finished second at the 1-A level and he feels they could compete for a team medal this year. Lamont said this is the smallest turnout since the program’s first year but he says the future looks bright as the Junior High team should be very strong this year and in a couple years the high school team could be very strong. The wrestling team sees their first mat action this Saturday at C.V. in a Jamboree. Their first league action will be a home double-dual meet with C.V. and Orofino on Dec. 14. Dan Altman also coaches the team. PIRATES BOYS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2004-05 JV games start at 6 p.m., varsity to follow unless indicated DECEMBER 4-Silver Valley Tourn., TBA 11-Highland, there 17-Prairie Christmas Tourn., TBA 18-Prairie Christmas Tourn., TBA 6-Timberline, here 8-Kendrick, here, 4 p.m. 11-Deary, there 13-Nezperce, here 18-Culdesac, there 22-Timberline, there 27-Troy, there 28-Grangeville, here 4-Lapwai, here 8-Highland, here 10-Culdesac, here 12-Genesee, here PIRATES WRESTLING SCHEDULE FOR 2004-05 DECEMBER 14-CV/Orofino, here, 6 p.m. 16-Kamiah/Lew. JV, away, 6 p.m. 18-Grab Bag Invitational, Pullman 30-Pomeroy Invitational 13-CV, there, 6 p.m. 14 & 15-Wendell Invitational 21 & 22-New Plymouth Invitational 25-Grangeville/Orofino, here, 6 p.m. 3-Oro./G’ville, away, 6 p.m. 4 & 5-Weiser Invitational 11-CV/Kam./Pot. Away, 6 p.m. 19-Districts, at Orofino 24-26-State at Nampa |
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