The Goshen College men’s basketball team have played four games so far in the 2025-26 campaign. The Maple Leafs currently have two wins and two losses, with both wins played at home. This represents their best start to a season since 2021-22.

Dwight Gingerich, athletic director, also serves as the coach for the team. Gingerich noted the determination of his team during preparations for the season. He said, “I didn’t have a chance to really see them play live or in person until open gym. I was really impressed with the pre-season and how hard the guys worked.”

Alongside Gingerich, the team has six players in their first year at GC. This means that Gingerich is still trying to implement his system. “It’s a new kind of system for everybody, so it feels like we have been a work in progress from the get-go. I really like the improvement we have made and I feel like we are getting closer to how we really want to play,” he said.

Team captain, Braden Allen, thinks that Gingerich has helped the team improve mentally during his time as coach so far. “He’s changed a lot regarding our mindsets in practice, how we looked at preseason, whether it was open gym, preseason practice or conditioning, five-on-five Sunday night run or 6 a.m. running miles out on the track. He told us coming into it, it was never going to be easy. If you want to win, you are going to work hard for it,” Allen said. 

One of the biggest areas that Gingerich has improved during his time as coach is the defensive tenacity of his players. “We talk about trying to make them very uncomfortable, and I think we are getting better at doing that in spots,” Gingerich said.

On the opposite end of the floor, Gingerich has put an emphasis on getting second chance points. He said, “I think rebounding has gotten better, we are pretty aggressive on the offensive glass and we want to keep that up.”

The Maple Leafs started off the season with a 20-point win against Grace Christian University at the Ruth Gunden Gymnasium on Oct. 29. Their most recent victory came against Cleary University at home on Saturday, on a scoreline of 78-72. The Leafs trailed by seven points during that game.

Allen believes that playing at home gives the team a psychological boost during games. “I love the home crowd energy. I feel like that helps contribute to our wins,” he said.

“Against Grace Christian, we got off to a great start. We were up by 20 probably in the first half; we were able to get everybody into the game. So there were parts of the games that were perhaps not as well executed but we came out with a good win,” said Gingerich.

Gingerich also mentioned that he has experimented with his starting five during the pre-season games. Against Cleary, he “went with a smaller lineup at one point. We just had a little more quickness on the floor. I think that helped us defensively and maybe offensively too. We were able to string some possessions together and that got us back into the game.”

Allen commended his teammates for keeping composure when they were down on the scoreboard. “Everybody that’s played basketball knows that it is a game of runs. So we waited for them to be done and we made our run back. I just kept telling them to keep their head in the game, be smart and not to foul out or get in the bonus early to secure the win in the end,” he said.

Gingerich believes that Allen’s captaincy has been a vital element in the positive start for the team this season. He said that Allen plays “extremely hard, he’s super coachable, he’s got a great GPA and he seems to constantly be thinking ahead a little bit. He is super open to us working together and mapping out whatever it is we want to do.”

Allen credits his commitment to his academics to helping his success on the court. He said, “If you can get your stuff done in the classroom, it translates to being on the floor, good with time management, good with getting work done. That translates from the court to the classroom or vice versa.”

Transfer senior, Tyrelle Hunt was named the Everence Student-Athlete of the Week for Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. Hunt scored 15 points and contributed six rebounds and two assists in the victory against Grace Christian.

“Tyrelle brings a bigger body for us. He’s [6 feet 4 inches tall] but plays bigger than that. He’s athletic, smart, mature and aware. He brings a lot to the team,” Gingerich said. 

When he was recruiting, Gingerich was told Hunt has a similar play style to Adrian Dantley, who played in the NBA for 13 years on teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and the Detroit Pistons. Now that he is part of the team, Gingerich agrees with this comparison, saying, “He’s got a medium range [jump shot] that’s solid, he can score, he can defend, he can rebound and he’s verbal and mature. That’s just a great set of qualities.”

The Maple Leafs have two more games before starting conference play. Their conference opener away against number-one-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University will take place on Nov. 19. Gingerich welcomes the chance to compete against the best team in the nation. He said, “We know that is going to be a huge handful. They’re very good, they’re undefeated and are picked to top the conference but we want to be as ready as possible to compete and see what we can do to pull off that upset.”

Gingerich has a growth mindset for his first season as coach, saying that “The main thing is that we want to just keep getting better and try to control the variables we can — effort, attitude, execution — and see where those things take us.”

The Maple Leafs travel to take on Indiana University Columbus on Thursday before concluding their pre-season on Saturday at home against Aquinas College.