Central Boys Basketball Fans, Coaches Ready for Success in 2018

On November 30, the boy’s basketball team opened their 2017-2018 campaign. Central hopes to continue going in a positive direction and build off their season last year. Last season the Eagles made it to the state tournament, but lost in the quarterfinals at Pinnacle Bank Arena to Kearney 61-50. 

There are many changes this year to the Eagles basketball program, highlighted by the return of head coach Eric Behrens. Behrens was the head coach at Central in 2014, after that he left to take the Peru State job. After posting a 53-41 mark in three years with the Bearcats, Behrens decided to come back to Central. Behrens hopes that his “last three years coaching college basketball has made (him) a better coach” 

A major reason why Behrens decided to return to Central was to coach his son Roman, during his senior season. Roman is one of two returning starters from last years squad, and led the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game. Behrens said he likes coaching his son and “there is a familiarity there, its not that unusual, but it is probably a little bit different at the high school varsity level” 

Behrens is not the only returning starter this year. The only other one is senior Jay Pal. He averaged 6.5 points per contest last season. Behrens said, “there is two returning starters, after that there is only guys who had limited minutes (last year), so its, I kind of look at as a new process this year, and yeah our goal is to win the state championship but at this point you know we are still in that just trying to get better every day mode” Of their 7 leading scores from last season, the Eagles are only returning three players. The two returning starters and sophomore Max Polk, who averaged 2.3 points per game last season, make up those three.  

Last season, Central started out 2-2, but then won 9 of their next 10 games, and then had a nine game winning streak near the end of the year. in route to a 19-6 overall record. Behrens hopes the same kind of player development can occur this year as well. He said ” I think this team is going to be a lot better in February than we are in December and that is not a bad thing.” Behrens also said, “I certainly do not think we will be at our best right away, but part of that is just youth and trying to figure things out with the new coach and some new guys in the rotation, but they are very coachable, they are very unselfish, and they play hard so I think when you start with those things it is a good formula.”