Following a 12-11 record in his first season as head coach, Aaron Pelzer has high expectations for the Norwalk boys basketball team in year number two at the helm.

Pelzer says the Warriors are “light years ahead” of where they were last year at this time, based on a solid cast of returning players who are bigger, stronger and wiser. The skill and confidence levels are both higher than last November, leading to more competitive practices that should transfer to improvement in the win-loss column as well.

Norwalk opens the 2022-23 season with a tough test at Ballard Tuesday night, and Pelzer says the players are excited to get on the floor.

“Norwalk Basketball has a pretty strong tradition and I’m happy to be back to the point where maybe people are marking us on the calendar again, because I welcome the challenge,” said Pelzer, who was a long-time Warrior assistant prior to taking over the head coaching duties last year.

The Warriors, who have gone 26-20 since winning the Class 3A state title in 2020, lost to Johnston in the second round of 4A sub-state tournament play last season. They finished 6-8 in the always challenging Little Hawkeye Conference.

Norwalk returns three of its top four scorers in junior Redek Born (13.2 ppg.), senior Braeden Carlson (12.9 ppg.) and junior Aidan Harder (7.2 ppg.). Born also averaged 3.9 assists per night while Carlson added 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals a game. Coach Pelzer calls Born a natural leader who was thrust into that type of position a year ago as a sophomore. He labels Carlson an incredibly efficient player who is now more vocal and adds that Harder was playing as well as anyone on the team at the end of last season.

The Warriors return another starter in senior Jack Brown, who averaged 3.7 points last winter. Sophomore Cameron Thomas may round out the starting lineup to begin the season while sophomore Grady Sigrist and seniors Landon Edwards, Ian Fisher and Dillon Ranck add depth to the rotation.

In addition to having a more experienced and deeper squad, Pelzer says that ball movement and sharing the basketball should be key team strengths.

“Scoring was hard for us last year,” he said. “We had to play at a pretty slow tempo (and) control the pace of the game, and I think this year the offensive end of the floor is going to come a little bit easier for us.”

Pelzer also expects to be very strong on defense, noting that the players seem to have bought into the idea of being the best communicating team in the state.

“I remember when I played – I hated playing against the teams that never stopped talking, and I kind of want us to be that team this year,” he said.

Pelzer expects a “battle every night” in the Little Hawkeye Conference, citing Indianola as the team to beat based on what they return from last year’s talented group. He also listed Newton, Pella, Dallas Center-Grimes and Pella Christian as very tough opponents, but believes the Warriors can stay in the hunt for the top of the league if they stay healthy and win a fair share of their close games.