When the Norwalk boys basketball team takes the floor for Thursday night’s home game against Oskaloosa, it will mark exactly four weeks since their last competition.

After escaping Dallas Center-Grimes with a 55-52 victory on December 21, the Warriors experienced a long Christmas break, two snow-outs and a make-up game postponed due to extreme cold. If the weather holds going forward, they will now play six games during a 10-day span.

Norwalk head coach Aaron Pelzer tells KNIA-KRLS Sports that he feels like the team has improved in some areas that needed work during the last four weeks. The frustrating part is not being able to assess that progress in games.

“This is about the weirdest thing that I’ve ever experienced in my coaching career,” Pelzer said. “We’ve talked a lot just about controlling what we can control. As far as our schedule – it was already set – the weather… there’s so much of it that’s out of our control right now that our goal has just been to try to get a little bit better every day that we’ve been in the gym.”

Pelzer says that the coaching staff tried to keep things fresh during the break, giving the team a couple days off here and there, followed by three or four days of hard practices. The Warriors enter Thursday with a 7-2 overall record and lead the Little Hawkeye Conference at 4-0. They’re also as healthy as they’ve been since the season began.

Seniors Redek Born and Aidan Harder are the glue, leading Norwalk with averages of 17.9 and 15.8 points respectively. Born also leads the team in rebounding and assists while Harder is averaging nearly two steals per game since returning from a football injury. Coach Pelzer is also pleased with the play of starters Grady Sigrist, Cameron Thomas and Tim Koerselman, as well as the team’s contributions off the bench.

Going forward, Pelzer expects to see improved rebounding and physicality from the Warriors and better offensive execution overall.

Following Thursday’s 7:30 varsity contest vs. Oskaloosa, Norwalk will host Pella on Friday night and play four games next week against Newton, Pella Christian, Indianola and Ames.