These are emotional days for Wilson’s Bob Powers and the girls’ basketball team he guided to a 6-15 season.
This will be Powers final year of coaching girls’ basketball. His retirement comes after a 20-year career at Wilson, the last two as head coach of the Lady Dragons.
“I retired from teaching in 2014. I have been subbing and teaching part time when needed the past six years. Hopefully soon, my wife and I will be in Michigan spending time with our grandson.” Powers said during a recent interview.
“I just think the world of these girls.
The job hasn’t always been easy. Freshman Kira White was injured playing Pike Valley in the first round of league tournament. White was hit in the face and suffered a concussion and a broken nose in two places. This left the team with just five girls.
 “Last year we only had five girls as well as this year,” Powers said.
With such a small team, conditioning was a major part of the routine.
 “A lot of the time I would only have four girls at practice and you can’t do much with only four girls,” he said.
Before the season started, Powers expected to have 10 girls. But then a couple moved and others changed their minds.
He expects numbers for the 2020-21 season to reflect the past two years.
“There are only about 15 girls in the whole high school,” Powers said.
It’s hard to get a decent-sized team together with such light numbers.
This year Powers had four freshmen, making the Lady Dragons an inexperienced team.
“I feel like I’ve let them down in a lot of ways,” Power said. “When you start to see that you’re losing your effectiveness in coaching it’s time to get out.”
Here is a look at members of the 2019-20 Lady Dragons:
•  Junior Bryna Hill stands  5’5” and sports a jersey with the No. 4. Hill’s season stats include four rebounds and 2.1 points per game. She maintained a 20 percent field goal and 62 percent free throw rates.
Her motto: “Don’t let fear of falling keep you from enjoying the ride.”
• Sophomore Macy Hanzlick is also 5’5” and wears a jersey with the No. 5.  
“The struggles we went through this season were tough. We only had five girls. That made it even harder as a team. With the years to come, I hope that we get past our struggles and grow from what we have learned as a team.”
Hanzlick was all over the court this season. She averaged seven rebounds, two assists and blocks, and three steals per game. Hanzlick maintained a 13.3 points per game average. Hanzlick had a 32 percent field goal average, 36 percent 3-point average and a 48 percent free throw percentage rate. Hanzlick anticipates playing her junior and senior year. Her sister, Kaleigh, received a scholarship to play for Cloud County Community College.
• Cara Criswell a freshman member of the team, wears the No. 11 jersey and also stands at 5’5”. Criswell  averaged five rebounds, one steal and nine points per game. Her field goal percentage was 36 percent and her average 3- point percentage was 36 percent. She had the highest free throw rate at 70 percent.
“I think it will be really cool to see us grow as a team and improve as the years go on,” Criswell said.
• The shortest player on the team is 5’1” freshman Grace Bohnen. She is No. 10.
 “Coming up as a freshman, I definitely learned a lot this year. I’m very glad we got to grow as a team,” she said.
Bohnen averaged a 56 percent free throw, 31 percent 3 point and 28 percent field goal rates for the season. She also managed two rebounds, 1 steal, and four points per game on average.
• Kylee Larsen, also a freshman, wears No. 3 jersey and stands 5’4”.
  “Quality over quantity,” is Larsen’s motto. Larsen averaged two rebounds, steals and points per game with a 24 percent field goal and 33 percent free throw percentage rate for the season.
“Toward the end of the season, I could see the girls frustration,” Powers said. “ I was also getting frustrated with the numbers.”
During the games, Powers had a hard time choosing how to use his time outs.
 “I didn’t know whether to use the time outs to give the girls a break or wait and save them for strategy later in the game.”
Powers thinks “the girls have a lot of potential when they get to their junior and senior years.”
Next year the girls will be getting a new coach.
 “I hope the new coach has the strategy and know how to help the girls improve to their full potential,” he said. “I will miss spending time with them and being around them. They are my basketball granddaughters.”