The WLB Round Robin Champions; the WLB Wolverines.  From the left ront row: Payton Anderson, Kameron Whiteman, Kaden Froebe, Justin Long, and Lucas Koczyk; back row: Draden Pozgai, Coach Horn, Patrick McCraith, and Joe Dalpoas

Wolverines take championship at WLB round robin

[March 03, 2014] West Lincoln Broadwell hosted their own version of March Madness this weekend, with their annual 6th Grade Round Robin Tournament, Thursday through Saturday.

 "We have been able to add new teams each of the past few years and had 7 teams competing for this year's title", said Coach Dan Horn from WLB. "This year we added, Delavan and Greenview to the field of teams that included; WLB, CEL, Carroll Catholic, Hartsburg Emden and last year's champion, Springfield Christian.

"Fitting twenty one games into one gym had it's own unique set of challenges, yet I feel we had a good response from the participating coaches as well as the fans that the 3 day, round robin format, is a great way to crown a champion and test the players with 6 games in those 3 days. We could not have pulled this tournament off without the help of our Booster Club and the extra efforts from the parents."

Saturday's 4:00 pm game pitted the two 4-0 teams against each other, with WLB besting Greenview 62-51, to win the outright Championship. WLB finished the tournament undefeated with 6 wins and an average margin of victory of 29 points.

 "Greenview challenged our team in a way our kids were not used too, and it was a great win for them to see a team that can score and defend just as well as we can and overcome that adversity. That's a real good Greenview team, who has played together and played at the Jr. High level, and taken some lumps, and are now ready to win. They are going to be a tough team to contend with. Coach Jansen's Bulldogs feature several 5th grade players, including his son Alex, who can really play," said Coach Horn.

The Bulldogs were able to regroup in a short period of time to face the 4-1 Crusaders in the 7:00 pm game and emerged with a 47-38 victory to place second in the tournament, in just their first appearance. "When they come back next year, they have their eyes on taking the title based on this years experience, with such a young squad"

"It's a good tournament for us," Said Coach Jansen of Greenview, " We could have gone elsewhere, but these are the teams we will be playing in the IESA season next year, and it's a good test for our kids to see where they stack up."

Coach Kincaid of Delavan agreed, "We had other tournaments we looked at, but this pits us against good local competition, in a good format, where we can look forward to next year's Jr. High season."

Horn concluded, "I feel like a round robin format gives us a true champion, because everyone plays each team in the tournament. So as long as we can keep the number of teams to a manageable level, that is the format we will use. We are looking to possibly add as many as two more local teams next year, but after a long tournament, following a basketball season that started for most of us in October, I will worry about that after a nice well deserved break."

The coaches also recognized a 5 member, All-Tournament Team. Participating coaches voted to recognize the following players:

Kaden Froebe -WLB
(Unanimous selection) with a 24.16 ppg average

Alex Janssen - Greenview
(Unanimous selection) with a 19.33 ppg average

Will Ewald -CEL
(Unanimous selection) with a 14.17 ppg average

Matty Harper -Delavan with a 14.66 ppg average

Dylan Singleton -Carroll with a 14.66 ppg average

The following players were also recognized by the coaches as honorable mention to the All-Tournament Team appearing on multiple coaches' ballots

Kameron Whiteman -WLB
Justin Long -WLB
Sam Roat - Greenview
Jayden Graham -Carroll
Dawson Erkslavn -Delavan

Here is a complete list of the games with the scores.

Thursday results
WLB 53-26
Carroll 48- Delavan 29
Greenview 55- Springfield Christian 34
WLB 62- Hartsburg 17

Friday results
Carroll 48- Hartsburg 26
Delavan 48- Springfield Christian 39
Greenview 46- CEL 29
WLB 58- Carroll 22
Greenview 49- Delavan 38

Saturday results
Delavan 44- CEL 40
Greenview 56- Hartsburg 29
Carroll 49- Springfield Christian 31
CEL 36- Hartsburg 25
WLB 55- Delavan 32
CEL 51- Springfield Christian 45
Delavan 49- Hartsburg 19
WLB 62- Greenview 51
Carroll 51- CEL 21
Hartsburg 44- Springfield Christian 43
Greenview 47- Carroll 38
WLB 55- Springfield Christian 21

Grand Champions

West Lincoln-Broadwell Wolverines

[Text from file received]