Indees to lean on experience

The Independence/Gilmanton boys basketball team will look to its experienced players to help the team improve again this year.

Now in its third year as a co-op program, the Indees surprised some observers by winning 10 games last year. That was a six-game improvement from the previous season and a major reason was the emergence of the team’s post players. While one of those players, Carlos Flores, graduated, the Indees return the other in Nolan Schank.

Schank was among the breakout players in the Dairyland Conference, improving his scoring average by more than 10 points per game as he averaged 13.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game during his junior season. 

I/G coach Kory Rud highlighted Schank as one of three players with varsity experience returning to his roster. The other two are guards Payton Hovey and Tyler Parr.

“We will lean on those players and on the development of our two new starters and our bench depth growing through the season,” Rud said. 

Hovey scored 9.1 points and led the team with 3.7 assists per game. Parr was second on the team, averaging 3 assists per game, while scoring 4 points per contest. 

“I am hoping our guards and post experience can lead the inside-out game,” Rud said.

With that, Rud said he hopes to learn and play to the strengths of his other players to help continue their development.

Rud said he expects defending WIAA State Champion Cochrane-Fountain City to be one of the top teams this season, adding that Whitehall, Alma/Pepin and Blair-Taylor will be good this year. 

The Indees began the 2025-26 campaign on Tuesday with a game against Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran in Gilmanton. The team will take on the defending D5 state champions at C-FC next Thursday.