Austin grads Tate Hebrink and Duoth Gach served as the cornerstone of the Austin boys basketball team over the past few years, but the time has come for them to move on.

For the first time in their entire basketball career, Hebrink and Gach will not be teammates next season. Hebrink will be playing at Division III University of Wisconsin-River Falls and Gach is headed to North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Three will be three Gach’s playing college basketball next season as Gach Gach is entering his senior season at Division II West Texas A & M and Both Gach will be a freshman at Division I Utah.

Duoth, who will have a full athletic scholarship at NDSCS, said it’s exciting to see his family, and Austin represented at the next level of basketball.

“We’ll all stay in touch and we just want everybody to get better,” he said.

Duoth will also team up with fellow Austin grad Oman Oman with the Wildcats, who went 26-7 overall last season, and Mankato East grad Uhana Ochan has also committed to NDSCS.

“I’ll have Oman to play with and I know Uhana from East who is going to play there. It’ll be fun playing with those guys,” said Duoth, a 1,000 point career scorer, who averaged 16.2 points and 2.8 steals, while shooting 61 percent from the field, 39 percent on three-pointers and 74 percent on free throws last season.

Hebrink averaged 10.4 points, 5.9 assists and 2.2 steals, while shooting 46 percent from the field, 43 percent on three-pointers and 74 percent on free throws for the Packers last season. He was the ultimate play-maker for Austin and he’s hoping to step into that role for the Falcons, who went 18-9 overall last season.

“The WIAC is a really good conference and they have tough competition,” Hebrink said. “I think it’ll be real fun and it’s a good level of basketball. I think I have a chance to crack in the lineup, because they’re point guard spot is pretty open right now.”

Hebrink said he talked to his sisters Anna Meyer, who played college basketball at Riverland Community College and Bemidji State University, and Gretchen Hebrink, who played college basketball at RCC, before making his college decision.

“My family had a big part of it. My sisters talked to me a lot,” Tate said. “It think it’s going to be nice to get away. I think it’ll be really fun to make some new friends.”

At least 13 former Packers have now earned spots on college basketball teams in the past decade as the basketball boom continues in Austin. Hebrink said that’s a sign of the team’s work ethic over the years.

“I think it shows how much work we put into the game of basketball and how much we love it,” Hebrink said.