GALESVILLE — As the opening game of this basketball season neared, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School sophomore Cody Schmitz was thrilled to show off the work he had put in during the off season.

After a strong freshman campaign, the 6-foot-4 guard was active on the AAU circuit over the summer with the Wisconsin Playmakers, and he showed up early for school to receive shots and stayed late after practice to do the same.

Schmitz, his teammates and his coaches all expected this training to pay off, but none of them expected him to do exactly what he did.

“I expected a big game, but nothing like it. It came out of nowhere,” Schmitz said.

The sophomore sensation put himself on the radar of the Wisconsin basketball community on Nov. 23 when he scored 61 points as the Red Hawks defeated Sparta 82-67.

GET coach Jared McCutchen admits that at the time he and the rest of the coaching staff thought a 61-point performance was an anomaly.

Instead, Schmitz is 16 games into his season and averaged 33.6 points in Saturday night’s game against visiting Rushford-Peterson. These huge scoring performances have become somewhat commonplace, with Schmitz hitting 34 points or more in eight of them.

“Thirty-over is an unreal game at the high school level, and it does that pretty regularly,” McCutchen said of the second, who also averages 10.6 rebounds. “I don’t know if it’s fair that we expect that from him, but we’re getting to the point where we hope he gets more than 30 a night.”

For as long as he can remember, Schmitz has been obsessed with basketball.

With three older sisters who were all into the sport, he started playing before he even entered kindergarten, and he always had a willing opponent or two in the family driveway.

“I really looked up to them,” said Schmitz, who has 770 career points in 29 games and made 40 3-pointers this season. “They were beating me back and forth in the day. I’ve always had competition pushing me.

Facing such tough, older opposition gave Schmitz a leg up on kids his age.

Sophomore teammate Jack Beedle has been friends with Schmitz since kindergarten, and Beedle says his friend has always been a great player.

“He’s always been skillful, quick, good with the ball, he can shoot it,” Beedle said. “Little spurts of ‘Wow, this kid is really good,’ and now it’s all coming together.”

Schmitz and Beedle were both eager to join the GET varsity team, so as eighth graders, the duo began hanging out practices and games from time to time, serving as ball boys.

This little college-level shadowing experience gave Schmitz valuable insight into how things would work before he officially joined the team.

When he made the roster as a rookie, Schmitz quickly emerged as the team’s best offensive player averaging 17.8 points per game. Schmitz finished his first campaign on a high, scoring 20 or more points in his last three games, earning him numerous accolades, including a spot on the All-Coulee Conference first team.

While leading the team in scoring, he was still a bit too young to be considered the team leader. Thankfully, the elder Sawyer Schmidt took on that role on and off the court last winter.

With Schmidt graduating and no senior on the 2021-22 roster, Schmitz realized he had to take on this role even though he’s just a sophomore.

“Becoming that man who can control attack, control defense, point my teammates in the right direction, make everyone better as a team, become that person is one of my goals,” he said.

Despite being big shoes to fill so early in his career, Schmitz rose to the challenge, according to McCutchen.

“It’s not typical to ask a sophomore to be a team captain or a team leader,” McCutchen said. “Last year he was calmer, of course, as a rookie, you would expect that. Now in his second year, he’s getting a lot more vocal this year. It’s a big step for him.”

This increased role hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the Red Hawks either.

“I’m sure a lot of young kids come to see him play and look up to him,” Beedle said. “It helps a lot, I think, with the whole program.”

As his skills off the pitch improved, his skills with the ball in his hands also increased; so far this season, Schmitz has nearly doubled his freshman scoring average.

With the attention his performance garnered statewide, Schmitz says a few college coaches have started contacting him, though he says he doesn’t know enough about NCAA rules to know if he can. specifically say with whom he spoke.

For now, he’s not focusing too much on coaches reaching out when, but just trying to decide what will be the best place for him later.

“I don’t know what level I’m going to be at, but I want to reach the highest level for myself and see the best player possible,” Schmitz said.

Despite all the flashy stat lines, Schmitz knows he’s not a finished product.

While there are certainly tweaks to be more effective offensively, McCutchen and Schmitz agree the second-year’s biggest area for growth is his defense, especially his off-ball abilities.

The flip side of Schmitz’s youth is that the future is bright, not just for him individually but for the team as a whole.

GE-T’s top five scorers are two juniors, two sophomores and one freshman, and McCutchen thinks the rest of this season and the ensuing offseason will have added significance.

“It’s going to be a big summer for us because we want to be successful next year,” McCutchen said. “Our expectations increase as the season goes on and next year we will have very high expectations with a group where we will send everyone back.”

For Schmitz, his coach’s challenge fits perfectly with his own aspirations for the program.

“By my senior year, I want to win the state,” Schmitz said. “That’s my goal.”