The Wauwatosa West Trojans boy’s basketball team has one of the greatest comeback stories in the state of Wisconsin. 

Last year the Trojans’ record was 0-16 in the Greater Metro conference. As of January 15, Tosa West was on top of their conference standing at 5-1 with the only loss coming from the cross town rival Tosa East. 

“We plan to get more conference wins and overall just see how far we can go. We want to expand on the success we have had so far this year and continue to see progress from the hard work we put in,” said senior Terrence McClendon.

They team has wins against Germantown, Brookfield East, Sussex Hamilton, Nathan Hale and Brookfield Central. 

The Trojans are currently ranked #6 in the state in the Division 2 bracket because of a win against the #4 team (DeForest) in the WBY Shootout. Their success hasn’t been easy this year, but their hard work is definitely showing. 

Before the boys basketball winter season, preparation has to happen in the summer and fall. With last year’s record being looked down upon by the state, the team had chip on their shoulder, and something to prove.

“I feel we had a smooth transition back. I think we are more mature this year and we have more team leadership. We worked hard over the summer and the fall with league games and hard practices to prepare for the season so I think all the work we did in the dark when nobody believed in us will come to light, ” said senior Colin Hardrick.

The Trojans’ off season preparation is seen with a couple new players stepping up big time. 6’3 sophomore guard Cole Hansen transferred to West and made a big impact out the gate scoring 30 points against Marquette and followed that up with 28 points against cross town rival Tosa East.

Kai Rogers, a 6’10 freshman, has a big presence in  Tosa West’s offense. Averaging 12 points and 5 rebounds a game, he seems to be the missing piece as a big man for the Trojans.

Jake Hansen, a 5’11 freshman averaging 6 points and 42.9% from the three point range continuously shows that leaving him open is dangerous. These new players have distinctly made an immediate impact for the Trojans. 

Watching the Trojans compete this year, the excitement to play is drastically different from last season.

“This team has changed a lot over the year because now with this year’s team I feel like we play for and with each other. Having that chemistry with teammates helps us out on the court and helps in hard situations where we got to work together and get the win,” said junior Owen Smith.

Though last year’s team didn’t see much success, they did have a highlight of their season; senior Colin Hardrick broke the all time record for most points in a season. Though having an outstanding season last year, he wasn’t satisfied.

“It’s great to have a record at Tosa West, but not winning many games last year didn’t sit right with me. I want to break the all time career points record but at the same time win a lot more games,” Hardrick explained. 

The excitement around the Trojans Basketball team can be felt in the halls on game day.

“This year everyone is really excited to go to the games especially since we are ranked…This is the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve felt like people actually want to go to the games…the crowd is usually excited and loud but that is something we definitely need to work on since our team is out there winning games we need to support them the best we can” said Ben Soboleski, a fan of the team.