Wildcats rise from ashes of disappointing season to sharpen claws of competition

A year ago, the scoreboard told a story of defeat; today, it’s a testament to a team that refused to stay down. Following the disappointment of 2025, the boys basketball team focuses on improving, battling through adversity, and growing closer together as a team.

Coach Dan Weisse believes the team’s goals are not defined through outcomes, but through the progress that follows them.

“Whenever we talk about goals, it’s never about the outcome,” he said. “It’s about the process of getting better every day. Our goal in practice is to get better than we were yesterday.”

Junior Evan Danahy thought the team showed great effort to improve and succeed from the process.

“The team put a lot of work in this offseason and we hoped to improve this season, and I think we did that,” he said. “At practice we always set goals on how to improve as a team and as an individual. I think that these have really helped the team and made us better.”

Junior Tyler Moderson also thinks that the team has developed a greater defense in hopes for a better season.

“I think we really improved on our defensive intensity,” he said. “Because of this, hopefully we can win more games.”

Senior Joey Ware has also seen personal growth mentally, overcoming his struggles through building confidence over time.

“My greatest improvement I’ve made since the start of the season would probably be my confidence. Now, towards the end of the season, I’m a lot more confident,” he said. “I struggled in the beginning of the season if I missed a shot; I would bring myself down if I missed a shot, but now I just start thinking about the next shot going in.”

Although the team has also faced its fair share of struggles due to multiple injuries and illnesses, Weisse feels it has not held them back from playing at their highest level.

“This team has faced as much adversity as I’ve had as a coach. We had a starter get hurt and miss a ton of games at the beginning of the season. We have had other people miss games, and the flu hit our team at one point, taking out a lot of players,” he said. “We don’t make excuses though, things do happen, and when adversity hits we have to have a next man up mentality.”

Although the seniors are backbones of this program, Weisse believes that the team can form a strong core that can support each other next season as well.

“We have seniors that lead the way, but it’s also exciting because you have a strong underclass of sophomores and juniors that I think have a bright future ahead of them in this program.”

While the FVA is a tough conference, Weisse believes it is the perfect test to demonstrate what the team is capable of.

“Every game is an opportunity to show what we have to prove,” he said. “The FVA is brutal in a good way. Going through this league is a grind and top to bottom the FVA is one of the best conferences in the state.”

Weis believes 2025 left the team wanting to prove their ability to compete.

“One of the goals we had was to improve from last year; it’s no secret last year was a disappointing year. We all worked hard during the off season and came together as a team, and now we are doing better than last year,” he said. “We all knew that we were capable of doing better than last season so we all worked harder than last season.”

Additionally, communication and camaraderie have bonded teammates stronger than ever before.

“I feel like our teamwork has improved a lot since last year. Last year there were different groups of people that hung out and got along with each other, but it was not really one big team,” Weisse said. “But this year we’re all friends together and really communicate a lot.”

However the team has sometimes struggled to stay motivated during tough stretches of the season, but they managed to stay disciplined enough to reach the playoffs.

“I’d say our biggest challenge this season has probably just been staying focused and staying motivated,” Ware said. “I know we’ve had a lot of close games that we lost, so just keep staying together. Our season is coming to an end and we just have to stick together as long as possible and then we have playoffs.” 

by Mason Callahan

Published March 2, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue V