On October 28th, 2023, we took an 11 man squad to the Red Cedar Rumble in East Lansing, Michigan. In this tournament, we had hard fought battles against some of the best in the league in Michigan State and Grand Valley. Our roster consisted of five rookies and six of our veteran members. Overall, we went 0-2 on the day and only managed to score a point in each game but got tremendous experience for our rookies that made the trip worth while. That being said it is quite clear that we have fundamental things to work on but when we work as a unit we have shown that we can have moments where we can compete with anyone. Here are thoughts that some of our members had to say about the Red Cedar Rumble:
Dylan Fabry:
“I thought that we as a team did really well against the top teams for the second tournament of the season. I thought that the rookies improved a lot compared to the first tournament and that we are headed in the right direction. The rookie that stood out the most to me was Ethan as he did a great job blocking for others on the court after they threw.”
Toryn Swartout (Rookie):
“I think the tournament went really well for our second one of the season. We did decent considering the talent of MSU and GVSU. The points we won were well earned but we have a lot we can work on.”
Caleb Laux (Captain):
“As a captain, I am really proud of how our team did. Going up against some of the best teams in the league and coming out with a point on each of them is a great sign for the young players we brought to this tournament.
It was many of our roster’s first tournament of the season, myself included. In particular, we had a few rookies get good experience. Ethan Schmeling stuck out to me as he was doing a great job. But all of our rookies have grown tremendously in the last few weeks.
With the closeness of some of the individual points despite being a player down with no subs, I believe that we made it clear that Platteville will put up a fight against any team we face and come out smiling when we give it our all.”
In the end, it was not the outcome we were hoping to have but ended up being a great experience for our newer players and we loved being able to compete with some of the best in the league. We hope to improve going forward and wish our competitors good luck with the remainder of their seasons. You can check out the games at the following links on our YouTube Channel. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to get notifications for our future games, Go ‘Neers!