The Wabasso team brought the Rabbits’ community immense pride and success this season, claiming the Tomahawk/Valley Conference championship for the first time in over five decades since joining the conference, and becoming Section 3A North subsection runners-up.

At the helm of the scoring and defensive front was Guetter, a 6-foot-5 forward who was a four-year varsity player and finished his senior season with just four losses in a 26-4 campaign.

“[This season has meant] a lot. We’ve been playing with this group for a long time, and we’ve all grown up around each other,” Guetter said. “In elementary school, we were always one of the better teams, so we knew it coming up, but we still could work for it. It felt really good to pay off.”

Guetter was impactful in all areas of the court and established himself as a three-level scorer. He led Wabasso averaging 24.9 points on 55/36/74% shooting splits and 1.5 blocks a night. He also dished out 4.3 assists with 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals a game, and finished the season with a total of 52 3-pointers and 46 blocks.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Wabasso senior Brayden Guetter goes up for a fastbreak dunk in the Section 3A North subsection championship against Central Minnesota Christian on March 7 in Marshall.

Notably, Guetter had a productive offseason and had a big jump from his junior year where he averaged 17.4 points on 43% field-goal shooting, 2.3 assists, and had 26 makes from the perimeter on the season.

Guetter was also named the conference player of the year this season.

“A couple of years ago, if you were [taller], you would be more like an inside presence, but that doesn’t really work too well nowadays. You have to be pretty versatile in order to help your team, and to lead and be a threat,” Guetter said regarding how he elevated his game. “I think just being a three-level scorer and increasing my skills in all three [areas of the court] really helped, because it keeps mixing it up for other teams. It makes it hard for them to guard me, and then if it’s hard for them to guard me, it’s hard for them to guard my teammates as well.”

Before all the awards and recognition came along the way, the sport of basketball has always been a core part of Guetter’s life from the very first dribble he took and fadeaway he made.

Guetter said he first started playing basketball in the third grade, sharing some of his earliest memories in the sport were having his parents, Karl and Dawn, as his coaches from third through sixth grade.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Wabasso senior Brayden Guetter goes up for a layup in the Section 3A North subsection quarterfinals against Minneota on Feb. 28 in Montevideo.

“[Basketball] means a lot. It’s the one sport that I look forward to every year and can’t wait for it to start,” Guetter said. “It happens to be the longest season, so that’s great. It’s just a way to be active, and is a stress reliever and a way to bond with your teammates.”

Finishing his prep career with the same group of childhood friends was also a nostalgic run for Guetter this year, bringing back memories of playing shooting games with one another to helping Wabasso bounce around the top-10 Class A state-ranked polls this season.

“We’ve all grown up in the town of Wabasso, and there’s not many times that actually happens, when everyone lives in town,” Guetter said. “So, you can remember going back to like grade-school summers, biking to each other’s houses and playing in the driveways.”

While Guetter fortunately didn’t have to overcome any major injuries or setbacks throughout his varsity career, he was both mentally and physically dedicated to bettering his craft on the court.

“I was really, really proud of Brayden Guetter. I mean, he definitely took another step forward with his overall game,” Wabasso head coach Scott Leopold said. “He definitely was a scorer, but he still rebounded, played defense, he led our team in blocks, and he was near the top of the conference in blocks.”

Guetter experienced a coaching change when Leopold took over two seasons ago. The team improved quickly and dramatically over Leopold’s tenure, earning him an Independent Coach of the Year nod this season.

While Guetter credited Leopold for his leadership and accountability, Leopold has the same respect for his starting forward who he got to see bloom over his upperclassmen seasons.

“He [Guetter] put the work in over the offseason. He really took ownership of that leadership role for us and he just wanted to lead his guys, do the right thing and try to make the right play,” Leopold said. “He was very coachable, always working hard in practice to get up shots. He lives in the gym, so he definitely owned that and took the team on his back sometimes and just said, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get us a bucket,’ when we needed it.”

The team’s potential was evident to Guetter early on, noting that Wabasso’s 14-game win streak to start the season built confidence and showed the group they can compete with anybody. The Rabbits also passed the century-mark in scoring in seven different contests this year.

Leopold spoke throughout the end of the season that the team had created a list of goals at the start of the year, which the guys continued to check off as the season progressed.

Now, Guetter and his team will forever be etched into the Wabasso basketball record books with hardware to support their memories.

“[I’m] just glad that it all happened, we worked hard for it,” Guetter said. “Just being able to always have that connection with the team looking back, and other people going back and eventually come back to Wabasso in the future to see the trophy in the trophy case, you just get to remember it all.”

Wabasso was a juggernaut of a team — Between the versatile shooting, height and rim protection, the Rabbits were hard to stop.

Junior Caden Frericks helped Guetter particularly on the rebounding front, who was all over the glass with a Wabasso single-season record of 498 rebounds and averaged 16 a night. With the talent spreading through the family, Guetter noted that he and Frericks are also cousins.

“[Frericks] is a one-two punch that not many people can stop,” Guetter said. “It’s fun seeing him [get] a bunch of layups and get a bunch of rebounds. He’s not insanely big, obviously, so seeing him go down there and just battle for it, it’s just amazing to watch.”

Although traveling over to sites in Montevideo and Marshall for the Section 3A Tournament, the Wabasso community showed up loud and proud for each game, which adds even more sentimental value and pride for the Rabbits to reflect upon.

“I think Wabasso boys sports has been on the rise with football this year and basketball the past two years,” Guetter said. “It’s great to see the Wabasso community getting back into it, coming out to support, making it a regular weeknight thing … Hopefully that can continue. It’s been amazing.”

The football team this season finished 8-2 overall and as section runners-up.

Guetter said he does intend to play college basketball, but is still weighing his options.

Going into his final season with the mindset of being a leader and playing whatever role he needed to for the team, Guetter realized the end of his prep basketball career was nearing as the postseason came about.

But, rather than feeling heavier emotions of sorrow that it was over, Guetter was more so filled with gratitude and pride for what his final season in a Wabasso uniform meant, and the memorable and new successes the team reached, which will not be forgotten.

“We always dreamed about [this]. I’ve never, all the time I’ve been alive, seen a Wabasso team make it that far. Being the people playing at those packed games, it was a dream come true,” Guetter said. “More than being sad that you lost, I’m just happy that it happened.”