PULASKI – After finishing the 2024 season at 8-17 overall and 4-11 in conference play, the Pulaski girls basketball team is entering the 2025-26 season looking to turn strong defensive performances into more wins by improving offensive consistency and taking advantage of a faster, deeper roster.
Head coach Doug McElrone said his returning group brings excitement and versatility, especially with the blend of experienced seniors and quick newcomers. “I think we’re going to be pretty fast,” McElrone said. “We’ve got a good group of seniors coming back that played a lot of minutes for us last year, and we added a couple young kids that are real quick. Our defense is looking solid, and we’re a little bigger than we were last year, so that’s nice.”
McElrone said the biggest area of focus has been scoring, as Pulaski struggled to consistently put points on the board a year ago.
“We kind of struggled to put the ball in the basket last year,” he said. “We didn’t shoot that great, but we really worked on it hard this off season. These kids are working at it, and we got a couple newcomers that can shoot the ball which really opens it up for us. Our upperclassmen have put in time to become better shooters too, and I think that’s going to show.”
Pulaski’s approach this season centers around reaching a scoring benchmark that often determines their success.
“If we can get to that 50 point mark, we’re a pretty hard team to beat,” McElrone said. “So that’s kind of our goal — 50 to 60 points. If we can get there, we’re hopefully going to win a lot of games.”
Despite losing Ashley Servais and Lily Urben to graduation, McElrone is confident in the leadership returning to the floor.
“Ashley was an Honorable Mention All-Conference kid and Lily was kind of our hard-nosed ‘do a little bit of everything’ player,” he said. “But we bring back Olivia Sprangers, who was Second Team All-Conference, along with seniors Alyssa Nitschke and Lydia Gwitt, who both started for us at some point last season. That’s huge for us.”
McElrone added that Pulaski’s depth could be a major advantage this winter. “We’ve got 10 kids on varsity and they’re all looking to get minutes,” he said. “We can play nine or ten kids on any given night, which is a great thing. Our junior class has been playing really well, and we also have a couple sophomores and even a freshman up this year.”
Senior guard Alyssa Nitschke said she’s eager to see how the team develops as the season unfolds. “I’m most excited to see how we progress through the season and how we get better every single game,” she said.
Nitschke echoed McElrone’s focus on improving offensive production. “Last season we struggled to score points,” she said. “We were really good on defense, but we just couldn’t get the ball in the basket, so I hope we improve that this season.”
Senior post player Lydia Gwitt said leadership and growth will define her final year. “I’m most excited about being a senior and being a leader of the team,” Gwitt said. “Hopefully being a captain and seeing how our team develops. We have some new players, so I’m excited to see where the season takes us.”
Gwitt highlighted Pulaski’s pace and shooting potential as key strengths.
“We lost some shooters last year but we have underclassmen that are good shooters,” she said. “I feel like we’re a really fast team and we can really push the ball up the court and get some nice layups out of that.”
With improved shooting, strong leadership and a commitment to scoring, the Red Raiders will look to build on last season and take meaningful steps forward in the conference standings.
After a series of preseason games including New London, Shawano, Oshkosh North and Menasha, the Red Raiders will host the Sheboygan North Golden Raiders on Friday, Dec. 5.
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