Heavyweight Battle in Appleton
December 10th, 2025.
It is week three in the boys’ high school basketball season here in Wisconsin. There have been some massive matchups early this season including some #1s matching up in Milwaukee last night with Slinger and Wisconsin Lutheran battling, and St. Catherine’s and Racine Lutheran duking it out down in Racine. With the snow storm, this was a heavyweight matchup between two strong programs with tons of tradition. This game featured two premier coaches in Coach Matt Klarner of Xavier who recently surpassed the 300 win mark, and Coach Bobby Kuchta who has been nothing but consistent leading the Seymour Thunder since 2020. Here are some takeaways from last night’s crucial Bay Conference battle.
Seymour is Loaded with Talent
One of my biggest takeaways from this game was the overall depth of Seymour’s program. Coming into this season, guys like Kyler Marks (6-4 Sr.) and Isaac Feske (6-3 Jr.) have been staples for the Thunder the past few seasons. Marks came into this season with 1,133 points and is continuing the climb the all-time scoring list at Seymour. Marks missed a healthy portion of the first half due to some questionable offensive fouls but finished the game with 17 points and a boat load of rebounds. Feske continues to get better each season and was dynamite from behind the arc hitting four threes and finishing the game with 17. Unfortunately for a lot of Fox Valley teams, Seymour has more dudes that can score. Six foot senior Xavier Salzman was outstanding last night finishing with 25 points (5 threes) and playing lockdown in your face defense. Seymour has other super talented underclassmen in sophomores Jordan Krause and Teage Cornell who both can get 20 points on any given night. Sam Geyso (6-0 Sr.) guarded Logan Ramcyzk all night and did a great job keeping him in check. I would not want to play Seymour in late February or March.
Xavier’s 1-2 Punch is a Handful
Playing at Torchy Gym is always a challenge for teams that visit Xavier and this season is no different. A big reason the Hawks are so tough at home is their 1-2 punch in their back court. Junior guard (6-2) Logan Ramczyk is a problem for all opposing teams with his lighting quickness in transition, in ball screens, and on the defensive end where he picked several players’ pockets to keep Xavier in the game. He finished the night with 23 points. His counterpart Kyler Bleck (5-11 Sr.) has been spectacular for the Hawks this year as well. He is averaging just over 19 points a game and is shooting close to 40% from 3. Bleck does an excellent job of finishing around the rim despite his size, and has a quick release 3 with range that extends well past the 3 point line. These two in the backcourt plus Xavier’s three point shooting and aggressive rebounding will lead to a bunch of Ws for the Hawks.
Sectional 2 has a Plethora of Contenders in March
Sectional two would like a word of being the strongest sectional in division three this season. In addition to these two really talented teams, the division three sectional also features Freedom and Berlin which could lead to some interesting basketball late in the year. Looking up and down the sectional, there are some traditional powers like Little Chute, Wrightstown, Brillion, and Winneconne that could also upset one of the favorites. Getting ahead of ourselves we could see a sectional semi showdown of Xavier and Berlin, and Freedom and Seymour before the sectional final. If my crystal ball is correct, those two games will be well worth the price of admission in late February. The hardest part of this sectional is that only one of the teams can get to Madison. Seymour, Xavier, and Freedom all will have an argument to win the whole dang thing in March. Luckily, this sectional is right in my backyard!
As always, thanks for reading.
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