A new season brings new players and new roles to fill, but the Xavier boys’ basketball team still has the same goal in mind: to win a state championship. The Saints are planning to achieve this under leadership from senior captains Bryson Bastian, Kyle Moeder and Quinn Schulte, and junior captain, Jake Beckmann.

“I have never been a captain before, but it is an honor that Coach [Ryan Luehrsmann] chose me to be one of the four captains,” Moeder said.

The Saints lost eight seniors from last year’s state semi finalist team and have had to make some changes on and off the court.

“Obviously, losing the seniors was not easy. They did amazing things for this team and program,” Moeder said. “But now we have to move forward and keep getting better every day as a team.”

Bastian said in order for the team to get better, everyone has to be willing to put in the work.

“I believe games are won from the people who do not play much,” Bastian said. “Scout guys do not get much credit, but when it comes down to games that are won, it is because of the scout guys who prepared our team.”

The team is not only looking to win regular season games, but to win their conference, the Mississippi Valley.

“I think we can win games because we will have a lot of options this year. We will have more people coming off the bench who can contribute to each game,” Beckmann said. “I think we will be tough to stop when we are rolling.”

The Saints won their first game 49-42 against Mount Pleasant on Monday, November 26. They beat Waverly-Shell Rock 42-31 on Saturday, December 1. They will play Linn-Mar at home on Friday, December 7 starting at 7:30 p.m.