Area roundball standouts prep for state all-star event

Monday, July 22, 2013
Steve Kodad/McCook Gazette McCook High School graduate Cody Wudtke (11) tries to push past Arapahoe defender Isaac Watson during Cambridge Sports Organization All-Star Basketball action last May. Wudtke is scheduled to play in the annual Nebraska Coaches Association Boys All-Star Basketball Game at Lincoln North Star High School Monday, July 22. (Reprints available at McCookGazette.com)

LINCOLN, Neb. -- It's the last official games of their respective high school careers for a pair of former area prep roundball standouts.

The two good friends will be teammates in the 2013 Nebraska Coaches Association (NCA) All-Star Basketball Games Monday, July 22. Cody Wudtke of McCook and Lucas Gleisberg of Medicine Valley will be members of the Red Team in the 45th annual boys state all-star contest.

The all-star basketball event tips off with the girls state all-star game at 6 p.m. Monday at the Lincoln North Star High School gym. The boys all-star contest will follow at approximately 8 p.m.

Steve Kodad/McCook Gazette Former Medicine Valley High School standout Lucas Gleisberg (10) drives for a layup against Wyatt Anderson (34) of Arapahoe in the Cambridge Sports Organization All-Star Basketball Games last May. Gleisberg will compete in the annual Nebraska Coaches Association Boys All-Star Basketball Game at Lincoln Monday, July 22. (Reprints available at McCookGazette.com)

For area fans not able to head to Lincoln Monday, both all-star games will be televised live statewide on the Nebraska Educational Television (NET) stations.

NET1 and NET-HD stations will have the all-star games airing Monday, along with the state all-star volleyball match Tuesday at 7 p.m. from the Lincoln North Star gym. All three all-star events will also be webcast live in Flash on NET's website (netNebraska.org). Webcasting of the series is a free service of NET.

No other area players or coaches are involved in the state all-star basketball and volleyball events. McCook will have three representatives -- coach Jason Cochran plus 2013 graduates Megan Ruppert and Brittany Broomfield -- in the NCA state all-star softball games Wednesday eveningin Lincoln (see the Tuesday, July 23 Gazette Sports pages for more information on the softball all-star action).

WUDTKE AND GLEISBERG have been long-time friends after competing against each other and playing on traveling teams since the fifth grade, Gleisberg said. The friends also played on the same team in the 2013 Cambridge All-Star Games last May, and they were on opposing teams in the North Platte All-Star Games last month.

"It's kind of a cool, a neat deal that we're going down there on the same team and are going to be playing together. It should be really fun," Lucas said.

Wudtke knows a few other familiar faces on the Red squad. Michael Hadden of Scottsbluff and Wudtke's team have done battle several times in recent years, and Scottsbluff head coach Tony Siske is the assistant under Jim Carlson of Boyd County for Monday's all-star event.

WUDTKE will stay at home and play basketball for McCook Community College the next few years. MCC head coach Brandon Lenhart has the 6-foot-3 former Bison pegged to play point guard for the Indians.

"Coach (Johnson) came up to me (in practice) and said, 'I talked to Lenhart, he said to put you at the 'one,' you can run the plays,' " Cody said.

The all-star teams practiced twice Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21, in Lincoln, and both teams were scheduled to hold one more practice early Monday in preparation for Monday night's contest.

Wudtke could be labeled as famous for making friends. He said in a phone interview Sunday that the all-star experience was very good.

"I've met a few new guys. They're all pretty cool," Wudtke said. "It's real exciting. It's a good experience. I'm glad I got to be in it."

Gleisberg is a 6-1 guard for the Red Team. He was very humble for him to be selected to the state game.

"It was actually a tremendous honor," Lucas said. "I feel very fortunate to be selected for it. Coming from a really small school I think that's quite an accomplishment. I'm very honored to represent southwest Nebraska and Medicine Valley High School."

GLEISBERG PLAYED high school basketball for his dad, Med Valley head coach Steve Gleisberg. Lucas said he watched some of Class A and B players in the all-star game during state tournament action at Lincoln last March.

"I think it's going to be really fun to play against those guys, because it will be a different atmosphere compared to a small gym in southwest Nebraska to a huge Class A gym packed with people," he said. "I think I'll make some pretty good friends and it will be a very good experience."

Gleisberg will enroll at Chadron State this fall, and he plans to try out for the Eagles' men's basketball team. He's hoping for a strong showing in Lincoln Monday night.

"I'm going to go down there and just give it my all," he said. "I'm going to do whatever needs to be done for our team to come out with a victory."

The high-flying Wudtke will have his sights set on a crowd-pleasing dunk or two, either on the giving or receiving end of an alley-oop pass.

"Get an oop, maybe I can get an oop there," Cody said. "Hopefully I can go out with a bang. I've been blessed to play on a lot of fun teams."

For all-star rosters and more information, visit the web site: www.ncacoach.org.

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