By Chris Cox

Beloit senior Wyatt Broeckelman began playing basketball in fourth grade, but he has been around the sport as long as he can remember.

“I grew up in a bigger family and it was all my older siblings favorite sport,” he says. “We are all competitive and it soon became my favorite sport as well. I love the team aspect of basketball. To be successful, you have to play well as a team. It’s not an individual sport. I also just enjoy the atmosphere of a good basketball game.”

Wyatt says his sister, Kaley, has probably had the biggest influence on him when it comes to basketball.

“She played college basketball and that’s when I really started getting into it,” he says. “I was playing other sports when I was younger but now, I just play basketball. I really fell in love with it watching her play in college and going to her games. It made want to practice more. She played at a junior college, but the atmosphere was great and there were always a lot of people there. There’s just nothing better than a loud gym.”

When he’s on the court, Broeckelman says his competitive natures comes out.

“I just want to win, and I hate to lose,” he says. “I’ve always been very, very competitive growing up. I just hate to lose. I want to win with my team and winning is a lot more fun.”

Broeckelman also has some fairly high goals set for his team and himself this season.

“As a team, we’d like to win our league and then hopefully make it to state this year,” he says. “I think we can do that, especially if we play well toward the end. Individually, I’d like to average between 15 and 20 points per game. I really want to focus on my defense this year, as well. I want to average a couple steals per game and get more defensive rebounds per game. Five or six rebounds per game would be nice.”

Outside of basketball, Wyatt is in Future Farmers of America. Following graduation, Broeckelman plans on going straight into the workforce and getting into farming.