The Saxony Lutheran boys basketball team had a fantastic regular season in 2023-24 with a 17-9 record including a Rolla “Duke” Herbert Tournament Championship. The Crusaders' season came to a heartbreaking end, a one-point loss to Kelly in the Class 3 District 2 tournament.

Saxony had a dominant performance against Advance on June 18. during a summer league game at the Cape Girardeau Sportsplex. The Crusaders' summer team head coach Mark Cissell said the team has the ability to be very good this winter even with some of their losses.

“We got a good group, they’re always ready to go to the gym and the weight room. The efforts there, we lost two big boys last, both thousand point scorers, we have to fill those shoes, which is hard but possible,” Cissell said. “I think they’ll be stronger defensively than they were last year, even without the rim protection of Luke[Eggemeyer]. From what I see early on, I believe this team is going to beat some good basketball teams but we have to get better.”

The main goal for Saxony is getting in the gym and getting stronger. With the addition of football for the Crusaders, Cissell said many of the boys are already showing up stronger from football workouts.

“About 90% of our boys are football players which in my opinion is a great thing. They’re in the weight room and they’re in camp right now as well. That will transition to the game of basketball very well for us,” Cissell said. “From the end of the football season to the beginning of basketball, I feel like these boys will be a little bit more ready to go come December.”

As far as replacing Eggemeyer and John Hartmann goes Cissell said everything is going through incoming senior Owen Buchheit. Buchheit started some last season while fellow senior Wes Kiehne was injured but according to Cissell has taken a big jump in leadership ability.

“Definitely my attitude and my effort, those are the two most important things to me and I feel like my teammates and I both do a good job with that,” Buchheit said. “As far as basketball skills I think I’m pretty good at driving the paint and finishing at the rim, I can also shoot the three.”

Buchheit and the Crusaders have a bad taste in their mouths about the way their season ended and all shared the sentiment of not letting that happen again.