A bright-eyed Norwalk boys basketball team surprised a lot of people in the 2025-2026 season. Only returning six points per game from the previous year’s scoring, the Warriors exceeded expectations. They won four more games than they did in 2024-2025, and capped the regular season off with their first outright Little Hawkeye Conference championship since 2019.
If nobody else did, head coach Aaron Pelzer knew the Warriors were prepped for improvement this season, having instilled a new offense partway through last year. The main reason for this was to get a head start in the development of this year’s team, which mostly consisted of newcomers to consistent varsity minutes. That head start mixed well with a breakout season from junior Tillman Papcun, who finished the season second in the conference in scoring and averaged team highs with 21 points per game, 1.6 steals per game, and a three-point percentage of 43%. The junior highlighted an exciting season with a game-winning three-pointer against DCG in February and a career-high 40-point performance in the substate semifinal win over Sioux City West.
Winning a close battle with Pella for the conference title and finishing with a conference record of 10-2, Norwalk drew a #2 seed in their respective substate bracket. They would end their season in the final of that bracket with a loss to Dowling Catholic. Including that game, every Warrior loss this season was to a team that made either the 3A or 4A state tournament, with the exception of Ames (Dowling twice, Pella twice, Johnston, ADM, and Ballard). Coach Pelzer tells KNIA Sports that strength of schedule will not be changing any time soon.
“That’s our schedule. We’re not changing it, we’re not backing down. I think, even with a couple of new teams next year, we’ll still be able to keep our nine non-conference games, and we’re going to keep playing the best because that’s where we want to be.”
All five Norwalk starters this season earned some form of all-conference honors. Tillman Papcun and fellow junior Audric Pelzer were named first team selections, senior James Hatlevig was second team, and seniors Jameson Demaray and Henry Smith were honorable mentions. In addition, Papcun was also named to the all-substate team. The Warriors also received some eye-opening performances from junior Jack Smith, sophomore Andrew Abbott, and freshman Lane Livingston, exciting Norwalk fans for the future. The three all-conference seniors, Demaray, Hatlevig, and Smith, are the only seniors on the team. Henry Smith will continue his basketball career at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake next season. Coach Pelzer tells KNIA Sports the three of them waited their turn, but came through when their numbers were called.
“I’m really happy for the seniors who sat and waited their turn and didn’t complain and didn’t come and talk to me about why they weren’t playing for three years. They just kept working and coming to practice, and I was so happy that they were rewarded with the season that they were.”