BY MATT BROWNING

Bennington boys basketball coach Curtis Pickering had high aspirations for his 2022-2023 team, especially since the Bulldogs went 13-9 a year ago.

For most of this season, Bennington has been ranked in the Salina Area VYPE Power Rankings and have set themselves up to be a high seed in their sub-state later next month.

What is perhaps even more exciting for the Bulldogs is the amount of youth on their roster.

“We have a nice mixture of a couple seniors as well as a couple sophomores helping contribute with our main core of juniors,” Pickering said. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve learned to not take anything for granted. I talk to them about not ‘waiting’ for next year just because the bulk of our production returns. Nothing in life is guaranteed so you have to go get what you want in the present time.”

It was reassuring to Pickering knowing his philosophy was already in place during the preseason, so the Bulldogs took off running and have never looked back. They have impressive wins over Minneapolis, Sterling, Wichita Classical and more.

“The preseason is easier on me when a group like this returns so much of the core, but maybe not so easy on them,” Pickering said. “The time we don’t have to spend introducing drills, plays, and offenses, is spent getting in better shape. Returning players from previous seasons is always a positive thing for any coach and year.”

Bennington lost in the sub-state semifinals last season, so the next logical step is to contend for the state tournament this season.

“Our goal this year is to get to the state tournament and see what we can do,” Pickering said. “I don’t like to put any certain win numbers on rating as success or not, but anything more than the previous year is technically a successful season.”