The leader of the West Central Valley Girls Basketball Team outlines his approach when it comes to the younger members on the squad.

Head Coach Dan Druivenga shares that he tries to touch base with the underclassmen during the summer to help them shift their mindset from transitioning from middle school to the high school level. A key area he stresses is the length of practice, where middle school is about an hour and 15 minutes, then high school it doubles due to two-a-days. Druivenga points out that it can be quite grueling at first.

“It’s more mental. You have to stay sharp and learn, because it’s actually hard to keep focus for that long of time. So we just keep talking about it once again and tell them that they’ll be okay, but that’s kind of difficult sometimes for them to comprehend, but they get it.”

The Wildcats concluded the 2024-25 season with a record of 14-9 (9-6; 4th inside the West Central Standings) falling 43-41 to Woodward-Granger in the Class 2A Regional First Round game. West Central Valley will open the regular season this coming Monday at home versus Creston at 6pm.