Basketball, wrestling teams ready for action

Sanders County athletes are hitting the courts and the mats this weekend in the first round of play for the local basketball and wrestling teams. As Thompson Falls boys basketball coach Jake Mickelson said, “It feels like we just played a football game yesterday, and now we’re playing basketball.”

And he’s right. Because of the Blue Hawk football team’s long season to a state championship, which was played on November 20, the boys on the team didn’t get much of a break and were at practice the next Monday. Mickelson said practice is going well for his team of 25 boys and that he has some great leadership. Senior Nathan Schraeder has been playing varsity since he was a freshman and Mickelson said he was a big part of the Blue Hawks’ state tournament team last season. Mickelson also has some returning juniors and younger players who he said are “hungry to make their own memories.” He will be joined on the court by assistant coaches Shawn Morgan and Bill McGuire.

The Blue Hawk girls are also ready for action. “We’re going to be very competitive,” said head coach Chadd Laws, who will be assisted by Scott Pardee and Sandra Kazmierczak this year. After practicing for two weeks, Laws said his 19 players are ready for action. Seniors leading his team include Danni Jo Van Huss, Roni Hanks, Maliyah LeCoure and Caity Alexander. “Caity put in a ton of work in the offseason to get ready for her senior season,” Laws said, adding that his playbook will have only minor tweaks this year. Laws said he is excited to be back in the gym and have the energy of the hometown crowd. “We have great community support. I hope fans come out and check out what we have to show them,” Laws said. “They won’t be disappointed.”

Both Blue Hawk basketball teams open the season on the road Saturday in Troy.

The Blue Hawk wrestlers have also been practicing for two weeks and will be on the mat this weekend for the Bob Owen Invitational in Polson. New to the program this year is a team of three female Blue Hawk wrestlers. Head coach Mike Thilmony is excited to be the first coach for a girls’ team in Thompson Falls. “I think girls wrestling in Montana is going to grow,” he said, noting that the state tournament last season had great numbers in the girls’ brackets.

Returning in his senior year and looking for a three-peat as state champion is Trae Thilmony. Also coming back are Elijah Ratliff, a junior, and sophomore Max Hannum, who both finished fourth at state last season. Shane Reishus, a senior, is one of three Noxon wrestlers joining the Thompson Falls-Noxon cooperative. Thilmony noted that Reishus has qualified for state all three years with the team.

“We have some great experience and some excitement in the room with new athletes in the program who are showing great potential,” Thilmony said.

Joining Thilmony in coaching the Hawks is assistant Ian Taylor and volunteer coach Kevin Sparks.

The Noxon, Hot Springs and Plains basketball teams kick off their seasons this weekend at the Tip-Off Tourney in Ronan. The tournament begins Friday, when the Plains boys and girls take on the Ronan junior varstiy squad. The Horsemen and Trotters will then face Seeley on Saturday. Dani Crowe is head coach for the Trotters and Tyrel Allen is back to lead the boys.

The Hot Springs Savage Heat boys and girls teams will play Lincoln on Fridy and Ronan JV on Saturday.

The Noxon girls and boys will each face off against Granite on Friday and Darby on Saturday.

In Noxon, Jordyn Wilkinson is taking over as head girls’ basketball coach, with Courtney Vohs as assistant. Wilkinson played for the Red Devils and graduated in 2012. “To coach in the high school I graduated from is great,” she said. ‘It’s good to be a part of something that played such a huge part in my life,” she said. “I have watched these girls play sports since they were little and now to be a part of it and have the ability to help them along the way is amazing." Wilkinson has 20 players on her squad, with seniors Vanessa Horner and Jaedyn Murray leading the way.

“This group of girls get along so well, they are a joy to be around,” Wilkinson said. “They come in every day and go to work, they want to do better and be better as individuals and as a team. I’m most excited about getting to watch these kids grow into athletes and to be a part of this team and help them the way my coaches helped me in high school. And being able to teach them not only the game of basketball but also hopefully instill some skills and lessons that they can take with them far beyond basketball and high school years.”

Jared Mellott is taking over as head coach for the Noxon boys after three years as assistant coach. Mellott has 17 boys on his squad, including seniors Cade VanVleet, Wyatt Lackner, Derrick Christensen, Gunnar Swanson, Charles Boehme and Nathan Cano, who is still recovering from a football injury, but who Mellott is hopeful will be cleared to play later in the season. He also has several freshmen on the team and is hoping that the leadership of the senior players will help the younger players grow with the program. Mellott said he is excited for the opportunity to step in as head coach, especially with the seniors who he has been with their entire high school careers. “We’re touching base with some fundamentals, basic drills and a lot of conditioning,” Mellott said. “We want to improve every day in practice and in the games.” He hopes his team will use each situation to be improve themselves and be better basketball players and stewards for the team, school and Noxon community.

Shane Angle is back as head coach for the Plains-Hot Springs wrestling teams and is looking forward to having tournaments this year, after COVID forced much of the 2020-21 wrestling season to exist with only duals. Angle has 16 wrestlers on the team and two seniors returning, Taylor Angle (who placed third in the Montana Girls All-State wrestling tournament in February) and David Schulze, who also competed at state. Coach Angle says his seniors have high aspirations for the season.

Four girls are on the roster for the Savage Horsemen, including two freshmen. Angle noted that while his team is younger, they will be stacked in the lighter weight classes. “The younger kids are just as important as the upper classmen. We have good potential with the kids we have."

This weekend, the Savage Horsemen will open their season at the Cascade tournament. Angle noted that they are trying to fill out their schedule and pick up more competition for the girls, and this is the first year the Plains-Hot Springs team has had competition in the first week of the season. “We’re going to take it one meet and tournament at a time and try not to look past anybody,” he said. “I think we have a pretty strong team, even though we’re young.”