Franklin Boys

Last year

Overall: 18-6

League: 10-4

Playoffs: Lost in sectional semifinals to Beloit Memorial, 61-51.

Conference: Southeast

Three pointers

1 The Sabers made their first trip to sectionals in decades last year and if they want to do it again, they'll need help from last year's junior varsity (14-7) and freshmen (13-7) teams. One who is already making an impression is junior forward Shaun Quirk, who had a great football season as a wide receiver.

2 Balance: Hogan thinks that the Southeast Conference is up for grabs this year as his was not the only team hit hard by graduation. "What we can't afford to do is what we did last year (start 0-2 in league)," he said. The Sabers opened their season Wednesday with a game against Brookfield East.

3 Improvement: "We can't focus on who we lost (to graduation)," Hogan said. "The kids know that they'll have to be ready to compete every night and that the chemistry will have to come around quickly.

Personnel

Coach: Tim Hogan

Key returnees: Brett Ksobiech, Sr. (12.4 ppg.); Chad Kanugh, Soph. (4.9); Nick Kriesel, Sr. (4.5) and Christian Nilsen, Sr. (3.6).

Key losses: Nick Romanowski (19.3), Matt Krueger (15.3) and Macon Plewa (7.3).

The lowdown

Height will not be a problem for the Sabers, who are coming off their best season in seven years, but scoring punch and experience will be, as Hogan and his staff rebuild around the 6-4 Ksobiech and friends. Hogan said the first week has gone about as well as expected as Kanugh (6-5), Nilsen (6-2), senior Dan Kingstad (6-6) and Kriesel (5-10) try to fill out the scoring punch left by the loss of All-Suburban forward Romanowski and the guard Krueger. "We'll count on those guys to lead us for the time being," Hogan said.

Schedule

Nov. 23 - Brookfield East; Dec. 6 - Milwaukee Hamilton; Dec. 9 - Kenosha Bradford; Dec. 13 - at Oak Creek; Dec. 16 - Racine Horlick; Dec. 20 - Milwaukee Washington; Dec. 23 - at Greendale; Dec. 27 - at New Berlin Classic; Dec. 28 - at New Berlin Classic; Jan. 3 - at Muskego; Jan. 6 - Racine Park; Jan. 10 - Kenosha Tremper; Jan. 13 - at Racine Case; Jan. 20 - at Kenosha Bradford; Jan. 24 - at South Milwaukee; Jan. 31 - Oak Creek; Feb. 3 - at Racine Horlick Feb. 7 - Muskego; Feb. 10 - at Racine Park; Feb. 14 - Burlington; Feb. 17 - at Kenosha Tremper; Feb. 23 - Racine Case.