By Tyler Buckentine
MANKATO — In their high school days, Tommy Saffert and Stephone Frederick might’ve considered themselves rivals.
But Saffert, a 2006 graduate of Mankato West, and Frederick,who graduated from Mankato East the same year, have been teammates for two years — and now roommates. They are being counted on to be senior leaders for the Bethany Lutheran men’s basketball team.
“When I went to East, East-West was the game of the year,” said Frederick, a 6-foot-6 forward who transferred to BLC in 2007 after playing his freshman season at Spring Arbor (Mich.).
“It didn’t matter if we were 0-22, as long as we beat West. When we got to Bethany and put on the same jersey there were times when me and Tom were looking at each other knowing what we had to do with one minute left in the game.”
Saffert and Frederick are two of three seniors on a BLC team that has 14 freshmen on its roster.
“We have a lot of freshmen on our team, and I think our balance is going to be really key for us,” Vikings head coach Rick Jeddeloh said. “For us to be successful, our freshmen will have to come in and play a lot of minutes for us.”
BLC’s top scorer and rebounder from a year ago, Andy Wills (another West grad), is gone and the Vikings will count on Saffert for most of the scoring. He averaged 15.3 ppg. in 2008-09.
“We always set our goals high but we also want to improve every day,” said Saffert, a 5-7 point guard who led the Vikings in steals (1.8), assists (4.3), free-throw shooting (82 percent) and is the top returning scorer.
Frederick is BLC’s top returning rebounder (4.8) and shot blocker (0.4).
BLC’s third senior is three-year starter Jeff Zimmerman, a Nicollet native, who averaged 14 points per game last season.
“(Jeff) certainly should be one of our top individual performers,” Jeddeloh said. “I expect him to have a great season.”
Sophomore Trevor Bartelt (Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton) and Gavin Kroehler (Le Sueur-Henderson) are also from the area in addition to the three seniors.
Despite its youth, Bethany hopes to get back where it finished last season, in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament championship game, where it fell 66-61 to St. Scholastica. Zimmerman led the Vikings in scoring in all three tournament games with 25, 39 and 23 points.
“We have a lot of new guys so we have to get them active real quick,” Frederick said. “We want to bring that fire to Bethany to get us a championship, and when we get there, the sky’s the limit.”
The Vikings — 13-15 a season ago — open play against St. Olaf at 7 p.m., Monday in Northfield and face Minnesota State at 7 p.m. on Dec. 1, at Bresnan Arena.
“Coach likes to say anyone can be a leader but, as a senior, the new guys do look up to you,” Saffert said. “It falls upon upperclassmen to get the younger guys comfortable so we can have a successful year.”
