The varsity coaching debut of new Hillsboro boys’ basketball coach Curt Hildreth must wait.

The Tigers non-conference season-opener at Kickapoo was postponed Nov.  25 due to snow.

Instead, Hildreth and Hillsboro opened the season Tuesday night at home against Seneca. The game was played after press time and coverage will appear in next week’s Sentry Enterprise.

Last Tuesday’s games at Kickapoo was moved to Jan. 6.

Hildreth, a first-year physical education teacher in the Hillsboro school district, is a 2004 graduate of  Iowa–Grant High School. He  began his coaching career as a freshman coach at his alma mater in 2007–08. He then served as I–G’s junior varsity coach the past four seasons.

Hildreth replaces John Koopman, who went 201–125 in his 14 years as Hillsboro’s head coach. Koopman left Hilsboro to take a principal position at Markesan.

“It’s been going well so far,” added Hildreth. “I’m really excited that the basketball season has started. I’ve got a really good group this year. They are really good basketball players and they are really good kids. We were supposed to play our first game on Tuesday, but that didn’t happen, but we are ready to go.”

Girls basketball team to host De Soto

The Hillsboro girls basketball team and first-year coach Scott Egan will host De Soto tonight at 7:30 p.m.

The Tigers dropped a 40–35 non-conference decision at North Crawford to begin the season on Nov. 20.

Junior guard Destiny Shore scored 16 points in the loss.

“For a first game, a lot of things went well for us,” said Egan, a first-year fourth grade teacher at Hillsboro Elementary. “Our defense was pretty good for the most part and we outrebounded them 38–29  and 22–8 on offensive rebounds. Those are things to build off of.”

The Tigers open Scenic Bluffs play next Tuesday at home against New Lisbon.

Wrestling opens at Royall Invitational

The Hillsboro wrestling team will open its 2014–15 season Saturday at the Royall Invitational.

Seventh-year head coach Snapper Verbsky returns seven wrestlers from last year’s squad, including seniors Mitch Beckwith (132) and Sabastian Miller (170)  and junior Nolan Hammer, but the core of this year’s team will be built on a nine-person freshman class.

“It’s been great so far,” said Verbsky. “We knew this group of freshmen was coming up for the last few years and we’ve been excited about it for awhile. It’s great to finally get them in the wrestling room. The enthusiasm is great. We even have competition for some of the weight classes. The whole demeanor of the team has changed. It’s a pretty nice thing.”

The Tigers will host Royall next Thursday to begin the Scenic Bluffs Conference duals season.