By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Go to a Dernbach family reunion and someone will likely be talking about the Almond-Bancroft boys basketball team.
Cousins Trevor and Kent Dernbach, who are both seniors, are A-B's two top scorers and combine for a tough inside/outside combination. With the 6-foot-3 Trevor playing the power forward position and 6-0 Kent manning the shooting guard slot, the Eagles are in the thick of the race for the Central Wisconsin Conference small division title.
The two have been playing on the same team since the fifth grade and both joined the A-B varsity team as sophomores.
"You get a good feel for each other on the basketball court," Kent said. "I look for him inside and if he's double-teamed, he kicks it back out to me. We're a good one-two punch I guess."
Added A-B coach Curt Lamb: "A lot of stuff comes from them. I think they compliment each other pretty well. They've played together long enough that they have chemistry."
They aren't the first Dernbach duo to play basketball for the Eagles. Kent's brother, Brad, and Trevor's brother, Taylor, were teammates a few years ago. Both Brad and Taylor graduated in 1996.
"That's really helped us a lot," Trevor said of having older brothers play at A-B. "They definitely push you. They let you know when you don't have a good game."
Brad and Taylor probably haven't had given their brothers muck flack so far this season. The Eagles, with a 7-1 record in the CWC small division and a 7-2 mark overall, are looking to reclaim their conference title. A-B, who won in 1997-98, beat defending champ Port Edwards, 65-48, on Dec. 7.
"It's something we've looked forward to (since we were younger)," Kent said of battling for a conference crown. "This year we want to get the conference championship and go on in the playoffs."
Added Trevor: "Our main goal is to go to state."
If the Eagles attain either or both of those goals, it will be the final step of a long building process for Trevor and Kent. As seventh graders, their team finished 0-12. Their teams gradually improved (3-9 in eighth grade, 3-17 as freshman on the junior varsity) and as sophomores they were members of the 21-2 conference championship team. And last year, they helped lead A-B into the WIAA sectional round, where the Eagles fell to Prentice 60-38 in the Antigo Sectional.
Lamb hopes the experience the Dernbachs gained can help his team in their conference title run.
"They had a great experience during their sophomore year," Lamb said. "They can show the juniors what it takes to get to that level.
"They work hard in practice and I think that kind of rubs off on the rest of them."
Is there a little rivalry between the two cousins, who live only a couple of miles away from each other?
"They kind of get after each other at practice and in games," Lamb said. "It means that they have that will to win, that will to succeed."