Leps Start Season With Win Over RTC
La Grange grad David Cooper has been coaching for 32 years.
Tuesday marked his final basketball season opener, and it was a good one as Cooper’s Leps beat Round Top-Carmine 56-29.
Cooper, who himself was a standout player for the Leps in the 1980s, coached his son Caden on the Leps and now younger son Jaxon is a senior hoops star for La Grange.
“This is my last year coaching. It will be emotional. Just seeing both kids coming through and being able to coach them has been great and hopefully we can finish it with a great year,” David said.
So far so good. Jaxon scored a team-high 18 points and varsity newcomer Reece Nygrin added 13Tuesday.
“It was not too bad,” David Cooper said. “I knew we would be rusty shooting the ball but we actually shot the ball better than I expected. Some of those guys are coming off the football field. We always pride ourselves on playing defense, and we played
good defense tonight, but we still have a lot of things we’ve got to work on. But it was a good start.”
And the Leps will probably only get better.
Two standout stars from last year’s team are still sidelined with injuries but expected back soon – Nate Scott and Eli Roberts.
Other varsity returnees include Clayton Knapik (who scored seven Tuesday), Ty Trlicek, Jaden Williams, Jacob Chovanetz and Andrew Bargas.
La Grange only had one senior graduate from last year’s team, Dana Baker. The Leps made it to the second round of the playoffs last season.
The Leps host Columbus at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and then play at Schulenburg Monday at 12:30 p.m.
While David Cooper considers the end of his coaching career, the guy on the other bench Tuesday, Brock Marburger was just beginning it.
Marburger, a 2012 RTC grad, was in his first game as new Cubs head basketball coach. He was an assistant the last three years under former head coach Blake Goehring.
“Being able to come back home and coach is everything I thought it would be,” Marburger said. “La Grange is a really wellcoached team but I liked the way our guys fought. We got down early and could have folded but we didn’t and put up a fight in the second half.
“All I can ask for is that we get better every day.”
RTC was led in scoring by Kannyn Goehring, who had nine points. Hunter Schobel and Jacob Polasek had seven each.
La Grange boys 56, RTC 29
La Grange 21 10 12 13 – 56 RTC 7 4 8 10 – 29
La Grange scoring: Chovantez 7, Williams 4, Cooper 18, Knapik 7, Trlicek 2, Desai 2, Nygren 13, Bargas 2.
RTC: Goehring 9, Schobel 7, Eisher 6, Polasek 7.
See