Courtesy photo The Alpena High School boys varsity basketball team is seen in this photo provided by the school.

ALPENA — Coming off a season that didn’t quite go to plan, the Alpena High School Wildcats boys basketball team is looking to bounce back and redeem itself for the 2023-24 season.

Returning three of its five starters — Tucker Bright, Easton Srebnik, and Connor Cameron — the Wildcats have more experience and feel better-prepared than last season. Previously, lack of experience proved one of Alpena’s most significant weaknesses, but coaches and players hope that will be solved this year.

“We competed a lot last year and were tight in many games, but we were unsuccessful in scoring when it mattered most,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “I think, with another year of experience for a lot of these guys, and with Easton and Tucker going into their fourth season on the team, we’re going to be more confident going into those final minutes of games.”

Although Alpena will retain several impactful players, six graduates have moved on from the team, leaving many gaps to fill for new, upcoming varsity players. Notable departures include Colt Gray, Brady Kollen, Devin Lamay, Zach Kunath, Logan Lacombe, and Nic Geister.

With those six now gone, expectations have been put on new and returning players to fill the shoes of the players before.

“It’s tough losing some of those guys, but that means the younger players must take a step up,” Pintar said. “We’re expecting big things between juniors Oliver Duthler and Connor Cameron that we saw flashes of last year. Connor should be a key part of the offense this year, while we expect Oliver to hold down the paint. We also expect to see an increased role from senior Avery Samp coming off the bench for us this year.”

Another difficulty faced by the Wildcats last season was its inability to hold its own with bigger teams.

While the Wildcats are still undersized and aren’t a great matchup against those bigger teams, focusing on physicality and playing above its size has been a considerable area of improvement.

Alpena’s two tallest players, Duthler and Caleb McEwen, will need to stay aggressive on both sides of the floor while staying out of foul trouble to find success.

“We’re not an overall big team, but all that means is you have to work harder,” Pintar said. “Especially in high school basketball, you can work hard and overcome some of those disadvantages just by wanting it more.”

Alpena’s most prominent questions going into the year are how the offense will run and how it can be more consistent.

Last season, Alpena relied heavily on the three-point shot, which sometimes worked but wasn’t always consistent.

Pintar, again, expects the team to get up lots of threes but has plans to get the ball inside much more. Getting higher-percentage looks down low will only help open up the three-point line and, hopefully, should result in more makes.

“Our most effective offensive skill will be moving the ball around,” Bright said. “With us being a smaller team, one of our advantages is having four playmakers on the court at all times. This should help us get open looks and be more efficient than we were last season.”

Despite not matching up with other teams in size, Alpena’s agility and quickness should lead to several steals and many fast-break scoring opportunities.

The Wildcats plan to stay out in transition as much as possible to secure the easiest points it can capitalize on every time.

“We are undersized, but we’re quick,” Samp said. “Our defense rotations have been really good, which we’ve been working on since the end of last season.”

With this potentially being Pintar’s final year coaching Alpena’s varsity team, the two weeks separating tryouts from the season’s first game will be vital in determining this year’s record.

Alpena begins the season playing Marquette tonight.