Premer-led Great Bend sweeps conference foes
Entering the 2024-2025 basketball season, there was no doubt in the mind of Great Bend boys’ coach Kyle Kriegh that his Panthers should be much improved from an already accomplished team from the previous year.
The Panthers were coming off a 17-6 won-loss record last campaign and finished 6-2 in the Western Athletic Conference, one game behind conference champion Hays.
Kriegh and his now veteran squad of mostly juniors had one goal in mind and that was to take the next step upward.
Consider the goal accomplished after the Panthers swept through the WAC with a spotless 8-0 record that translated into an 18-3 overall season record. The Panthers only blemishes came outside the WAC with setbacks to Class 3A-ranked Haven and Hesston during the regular season and then a stunning 62-60 loss to Goddard-Eisenhower in the Class 5A sub-state on their home court.
“The season didn’t end the way we wanted, but we still accomplished a lot and I’m proud of the way the kids played,” Kriegh said, noting that his junior standout, 6-6 forward/post Ian Premer was voted the Player of the Year while he earned Coach of the Year laurels.
“Winning the WAC was something we definitely emphasized since it had been a few years since we last won it,” Kriegh said. “At some level, you look at the WAC along with tournaments both during the (regular) season and in the post-season.”
With a double round-robin format, every team sees each other twice – home and away – and Kriegh said it was imperative to defend the Panthers’ home floor.
“You can’t afford to lose at home and expect to have a good chance at winning it (title),” Kriegh said. “Then, you try your best to win as many road games as possible and let the results speak for themselves.”
Another aspect of the conference schedule is that it takes place over about a 7-week time frame, thus WAC schools are playing familiar foes twice – sometimes in less than a two-week turnaround.
“The way teams can review film, scout and prepare makes it difficult the second time around,” Kriegh said. “There are good coaches and teams throughout the league.”
Kriegh’s team was dominated by a talented junior class, led by the power-packed Premer, who terrorized the WAC with a 25-point per game scoring average while pulling down 11.5 rebounds per outing.
“We like to play quickly and push the ball as much as possible,” Kriegh said. “We’ve stressed the defense to help us transition into a fastbreak offense and hopefully get quick run-outs.”
Premer, though the tip of the Panther spear, was not alone in being a threat on the offensive end of the floor. Senior Ben Nicholson (6-6 forward), another first-team all-WAC selection, averaged 12.1 points while junior Jacob Hall was second on the team at 12.5. Two more juniors – Cooper Ohnmacht and Daxton Minton, averaged 6.6 and 6.3 points, respectively.
“It’s been beneficial that we have multiple ways of scoring,” Kriegh said. “The boys have been playing together for so long; they are familiar with each other.”
Kriegh said that defense was the biggest area in which the team improved from the previous season.
“We took more pride and played more as a unit,” Kriegh said. “It was the third year for us to playing our motion offense and things were more fluid and we shot a higher percentage (53 percent) as a team and became a lot more productive.”
That translated into holding teams to under 37 percent field goal shooting while teams committed an average of 17 turnovers per outing.
Despite the stunning loss to Eisenhower in the sub-state semifinal, Kriegh said he still considers the season a success and provides that extra motivation for this group as they look to their senior campaign in 2025-26.
“There’s always more to wins and losses,” Kriegh said. “These kids are good representatives of their school and community and I’m very proud of them.”
Premer Powers His Way to WAC Player of Year Award
To nobody’s surprise, Great Bend’s power forward/post Ian Premer, a 6-6, 230-pound force was voted WAC Player of the Year by the conference’s other four coaches.
Premer was a monster for the Panthers, who finished 8-0 in the WAC and went 18-3 for the season.
He set numerous school records with his high-intensity playing effort, averaging 24.4 points per game (25.7 in the WAC), connected on 65.6 percent of his field goals and 11.5 rebounds per game. In addition, he averaged 3.8 assists and had an assist/turnover ratio of 2.5 while recording an average of 2.1 steals per game. His rebounding average was split nearly evenly at 5.2 on the offensive boards and 6.3 on the defensive end.
“He spends so much time working on improving,” Great Bend coach Kyle Kriegh said of Premer, who is being highly-recruited as a tight end in football by major powers all over the country. “He’s the ultimate team player and ultra-competitive. He’s gotten a lot stronger by working out relentlessly in the weight room.”
Kriegh also praised Premer for his off-court leadership.
“He’s just a good person,” Kriegh said. “He could be valedictorian of his class. Recently, we had a kids’ team who needed a coach for the day, and he volunteered to do that. His time is quite busy, so for him to do something like speaks volumes as to the type of person he is.”
When Premer was informed of the WAC award, he was soft-spoken in his description of how he felt.
“It does feel good, but mainly because I’m honored that coaches who watched me like what they saw in the way I played,” Premer said in a recent telephone interview.
Premer’s multi-sport talent also landed him the WAC Offensive Player of the Year last fall in football at tight end while also playing free safety on the defensive side of the football. He plays first base on the Panthers’ baseball team and batted around the .500 level n his sophomore season.
“I just really enjoy all the different sports, but football will be the sport to play at the college level,” Premer said. “Each sport has something that helps me with the other sports, so I see a lot of benefit in playing them all.”
Premer said he enjoys playing football and basketball in what he describes as “downhill.”
“There are two destinations in the sports – the end zone for football and the basket in basketball,” he said. “Those are where I want to go and get there as fast as I can.”
Premer says he has worked hard to continue his improvement and development while admitting he still has room to get better.
“I stay in shape and work on my overall athleticism and agility,” Premer said. “I do a lot of resistance work in the summer and a variety of other workouts to just get better. I went from 205 (pounds) as a sophomore to 230 as a junior. It just has made everything easier.”
Premer said most college recruiters for football see him as the consummate tight end, being a strong and tenacious blocker while possessing good speed and hands to make big-time plays as a receiver.
“I think I’ll eventually be able to play at about 245-250 pounds,” Premer said of his college expectations. “I’m excited to see where it all ends up. I’ve got a number of recruiting trips this spring, and I hope to make a decision in the summer so I have that decision out of the way before my senior year begins.”
On the basketball floor, Premere said he improved his shooting while still playing as much as possible around the rim.
“I like posting up and then using my quickness and jumping ability,” Premer said. “I can take advantage of mismatches. One of the things I know I can improve on is my perimeter shooting, so there’s never a time when I feel I can’t get better.”
Premer said he wouldn’t be where he is today without his teammates/classmates and credits them for keeping him grounded.
“We’ve been playing ball together since second grade,” Premer said. “We’re like family. The chemistry is really good and we just know where each other is, either on the football field or on the court. We understand how each other plays.”
Coming up short of their goal to reach the 5A state tournament will only serve as an extra motivator for next season, Premer said.
“Having the No. 1 seed and losing is difficult, but it is part of the game,” Premer said. “We’ll point to the fact that you can’t overlook anybody, especially when it is the post-season.”
Premer said he plans to pursue an academic degree in business and/or finance.
“I’d like to be able to use the degree in a variety of opportunities that I hope will come my way,” Premer said.
Western Athletic Conference
BOYS BASKETBALL
2024-2025 Final Standings
| SCHOOL | RECORD | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Bend | 8-0 |
| 2 | Hays | 6-2 |
| T3 | Dodge City | 3-5 |
| T3 | Garden City | 3-5 |
| 5 | Liberal | 0-8 |
Western Athletic Conference
BOYS BASKETBALL
2024-2025 All-Conference
| NAME | SCHOOL | CLASS |
|---|---|---|
| FIRST TEAM | ||
| Ian Premer | Great Bend | Jr. |
| Dawson Ruder | Hays | Jr. |
| Jacob Hall | Great Bend | Jr. |
| Ben Nicholson | Great Bend | Sr. |
| James Feiser | Liberal | Jr. |
| SECOND TEAM | ||
| Cooper Johnson | Hays | Sr. |
| Dallas Rosales | Garden City | Sr. |
| Ty Scheck | Dodge City | Jr. |
| Thomas Longa | Garden City | Sr. |
| Trey Oakley | Hays | Jr. |
Coach of the Year: Kyle Kriegh, Great Bend
