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'A' 2023-24 PREVIEWS
December 7, 2023
Winter 2023-24 Boys Basketball Preview: NWA Polson Pirates
by John Heglie
Preceding season recap
Last season, the 2022-23 rendition of Pirate basketball finished in the midst of the NWA Conference standings with sweeps over Libby and Ronan along with a split with Whitefish. In their two point road loss to the Bulldogs at the Dog Pound, the Pirates held the lead most of the contest until a late Whitefish surge erased the deficit when they tied, then a waning seconds putback off an initial miss supplied the margin that capsized the Pirates. Beyond a pair of wins over Corvallis, the remainder of their nonconference slate fell on the short end of the scoreboard against state bound teams aside from their Rez roundball rivalry wrangle road loss to Mission at St. Ignatius.
Statebound teams: 2W Frenchtown (L), 3W Dillon (L), 4W Hamilton (0-2), 5W C-Falls (0-3), 1W 6B Loyola (L), 2W 7B Bigfork (L)
Adaptations: Graduation and attrition
The Pirates graduated seven seniors from last season. Among decorated departures include thrice all-state millennial marksman Jarrett Wilson and all-conference honorable mention Trent Wilson. Most of the outstanding quintet of grads were accomplished athletes in other disciplines - 2023 State A tennis team champions: doubles champions Owen McElwee (w/ Trent Wilson), State A 5th place Colter Wilson (w/ Tate Barentsen); 2023 State baseball champions Dawson Dumont, Cymian Kauley (incl. Jarrett Wilson). Tyler Wenderoth held an honorable mention credential in football on defense, but was also team second leading receiver.
The lone decorated non-grad among starters would have been all-conference honorable mention Espn Fisher, second leading scorer last season who also holds dual state championship credentials in both baseball as well as golf.
Roster R's: returnees, resources and reconstruction
Though the current roster of the Pirates will be called upon to recalibrate without starters reprising roles from last season, they do return a handful of reserves who not only contributed minutes, but also impacted the scoreboard by collaborating on multiple dozens of points. Among those include Brock Henriksen, Anthony Lichtenberg, Cason Graham and Ezra FastHorse. Henriksen missed large swaths of last season recovering from injury. Though a more favorable timetable experienced by FastHorse allowed for his availability at the beginning of last season, peak performance would have been impacted until a latter juncture of the schedule. Both will be itching to either make up for lost time or maximize skills to optimal effect from the very start of this new season. Others will be called upon to fill vacancies created by departures.
The Pirates will also benefit from Ronan transfer senior Uriah Ulutoa
Prognosis P's: Prospects, penchants and potential
The preceding mentioned quartet along with a handful of others among an anticipated pool of contributors hold all-conference credentials in other sports and/or were part of the roster of spring championship squads. Such a background underscores the breadth of athleticism along with transferrable skill sets infusing the new roster despite the absence of more seasoned hoops returnees.
Those coming from a soccer background will now be free to use their hands to score goals. Baseball players adept at delivering a ball to the target of a mitt or strikezone can readily adapt such techniques toward threading a basketball through a net. Golfers periodically called upon to make adjustments to their strokes to compensate for differing conditions on a green can now refine techniques on the environment of a court with different iron in mind: putting shots through the hole on a rim of a backboard. Footballers can readily implement assorted cross-disciplinary capabilities: blocking to screen out defenders, spacing to optimize passing lanes, recognition of the value of delivering crisp passes to advance the ball and so on.
Head coach Jacob Halgren embarks upon his second season at the helm of the Pirates, assisted by Chris Evenson and James Bible.
With no skyscrapers dotting their horizon, the Pirates will rely on a stringent defense to limit incursions attempted by taller opponents as well as will need to compensate for an absence of distinctive height advantages by optimizing teamwork in conjunction with shot selection. The Polson coaching staff will endeavor to retool the current influx of Pirates to get them to cook at just the right temperature so that they sizzle on the court while avoiding getting burned by the heat of competition.
Polson inaugurates their season at the Western A Tip-Off in Frenchtown the weekend of December 8-9, where they will face 6B Loyola and SWA Corvallis. Their first home stand is against Stevensville on Tuesday, December 19.
Wtr2022-23 Polson Pirates (7-13), NWA(5-5), nonconf(2-6), Div (0-2)
2022-23bbb Pirates (1150p,696r,219a,175s,24b) – Jarrett Wilson (424p,154r,61a,60s,7b), Espn Fisher (197p,87r,33a,21s,2b), Trent Wilson (138p,81r,31a,22s), Dawson DuMont (110p,103r,25a,21s,6b), Cymian Kauley (104p,100r,13a,11s,2b), Tyler Wenderoth (51p,30r,20a,10s), Owen McElwee (50p,60r,10a,9s,4b), Colter Wilson (32p, 33r,20a,10s,1b), Brock Henriksen (21p,28r,5a,7s,2b), Jabez Madplume (8p,5r), Anthony Lichtenberg (7p,6r,1s), Cason Graham (4p,3r,1a,2s), Ezra FastHorse (4p,4r,1s), Hunter Emerson (2r). MtHSAth
Accrued athletic accolade acknowledgements
Brock Henriksen (FB 2x a-c 2nd-tm DE 2023/LB 2022), Ezra FastHorse (FB a-c hm DL), Trey Lichtenberg (BSC a-s, a-c 1st-tm), Cason Graham (BB state champion), Torrin Ellis (TN-S 2x a-s: 2nd 2023, 5th 2022; 2x a-c: 2nd 2022-23; GLF a-s t13 2022, 2x a-c t5 2022, 8th 2021, team state champion 2023), Cruz Lies (BSC 2x a-c: 2nd-tm 2023, hm 2022), Maddox Bird (BSC a-c 1st-tm), Cody Haggard (BB State A champion 2023);
Grads: Jarrett Wilson (BBB 3x a-s, 3x a-c 1st-tm; FB MVP-O 2022, co-MVP-O 2021, 3x a-s QB, 3x a-c 1st-tm/2nd-tm S 2022; BB-mhsa a-s, a-c 1st-tm State A champion 2023), Trent Wilson (BBB a-c hm; FB a-s, 3x a-c: 1st-tm WR/S 2022, 2x 2nd-tm ILB 2020-21; TN-D a-s 1st, 2x a-c 2nd 2022-23 State A doubles champion), Dawson DuMont (FB 2x a-s; 3x a-c: NWA 1st-tm OLB 2021-22, W8M 2nd-tm DE 2020; TF 2021 a-s 4x100 6th, 3x a-c 4x100 3rd, 4x400 5th, 100 6th; BB-mhsa a-s, a-c 1st-tm State A champion 2023, LegionA a-s 2023, 4x a-c 20-23), Cymian Kauley (BB-mhsa a-c 1st-tm UT, State A champion 2023, LegionA hm 2023), Tyler Wenderoth (FB a-c hm S), Owen McElwee (TN-D a-s 1st, 2x a-c 2nd 2022-23, State A doubles champion), Colter Wilson (TN-D a-s 5th, a-c 3rd 2023), Espn Fisher (BBB a-c hm; BB-mhsa a-s, a-c 1st-tm State A champion 2023, LegionA a-s 2023, 4x a-c 2020-23; GLF 2x a-s: t13 2023, t15 2022, 2x a-c: 6th 2023, t5 2022).
Other preview by Brandon Hansen featured in the December 7 issue of the Lake County Leader.
CFALLS
The Columbia Falls boys basketball team has something it hasn’t had in years — depth.
With all of its key and talented players returning from last season when it made it to the state tourney, the Wildcats should be even better this season.
The Wildcats have eight seniors including starters from last season Jace Hill, Mark Robison, Alihn Anderson and Cody Schweikert. They’ll also look for good things from seniors Dayne Tu and Chance Miller and later in the season, Hunter Goodman and junior Reggie Sapa. Sapa and Goodman are recovering from injuries suffered during the football season.
Off the bench, junior Silas Ypma looks sharp as does Easton Brooks.
“It’s nice we have the depth,” Finberg, now in his eighth year, said. “We’ll be tested early this season.”
The 6-2 guard Hill led the team in scoring with 14 points per game and over 7 assists per game. He also led the team in rebounds, with 5.7 per game.
The Wildcats have a tough schedule right out of the gate as they faced Hamilton on the road Tuesday after presstime and then travel to Frenchtown Dec. 8-9 where the face Dillon and Class B Loyola.
They travel to Lewistown the following week for an east-west tourney where they’ll square off against Glendive and host Lewistown.
“Every team we play (early in the season) was at the state tourney last year,” Finberg noted. “It will be a good challenge for our guys.”
Finberg is assisted by Mike Dyon, and Austin Barth along with volunteer assistants Mike Pedersen and Alex Presnell.
Presnell was the point guard on the Wildcats last championship team. Mike Dyon coaches JV and Barth the froshmores. William Dyon is also helping Barth with the froshmores
