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  • PHOTO BY A.L. SHAFF
    Senior Landon Kirchner leads the way for the Texan basketball team.

Senior leads way for Texan Basketball

As the leading scorer for the Wimberley High School basketball team, Texan senior Landon Kirchner attributes his scoring ability more to the position he plays and to his teammates’ ability to run the press defense. “Since I play the high post, I get quite a few putback rebounds. Also, because I’m almost six feet six inches, the guards can feed me the ball down low near the basket.”

Kirchner’s Coach said that his senior is an important part of the team’s success.

“Landon has made a huge contribution to our team this year on both ends of the floor,” Coach Michael Whitten said. “He’s very versatile and can impact games with his scoring, shot blocking ability and altering shots around the basket, as well as being a great rebounder on both ends of the floor.”

About the possibility of being recruited to play in college, Kirchner says, “Well, that’s not really happened, not yet---at least not any college that I’m interested in. Mostly it’s small colleges and community colleges that don’t have the programs that interest me. Small college basketball is not necessarily the path for me.”

“I’ve always thought I’ve got a pretty good mind and I’ve had this knack for problem solving. So, I decided a couple of years ago that becoming a chemical engineer would be pretty cool career for me. So, I’d like to go to college for that profession. Right now, I’m looking at Texas A@M and applying for a scholarship there.”

Switching back to high school basketball at Wimberley, Landon talked about the rest of the season and the team’s chances in the up-coming district competition. “At the beginning of the season, we had only players from last year’s varsity so I didn’t know how the chemistry of the team would be.

“This is the first year of these starters playing together. The first two games of the season were kind of rocky but when we played Blanco, we were down something like 24 points but came back to win 79-71. After that comeback win, we’ve lost only two games with a streak of something like 12 wins in a row. Its feeling pretty good right now and we’re better than I thought we’d be.”

“Now I think our team can go deep into the district tournament, maybe even win it to advance. We’re going to need to get past the favorites, Boerne and Fredericksburg, in district play because they’re the toughest teams. Boerne always plays tough defense and Fredericksburg plays solid power basketball.”

“I like the press defense we run this year because when we run it right, we force a lot of turnovers and easy baskets. When coach Whitten added Tommy Garner to the starting lineup, his speed and defense skills began to make a difference. He handles the ball well, and he does a really good job at setting up plays. He was on the varsity last year as well and he had a pretty big role in how well that team did.”

Landon’s parents are Kristopher and Jennifer Kirchner of Wimberley. When it comes to high school athletics, there is more to it than just being good at your sport.

“Landon is a great kid with a great sense of humor and he is very well liked by his teammates,” Coach Whitten said. “He is a very intelligent young man and does a great job in the classroom, which transfers to the court. He picks things up quickly and adjusts in games as needed.”

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054