Next week, the boys Varsity will head to Divisionals in Billings with high hopes of making it to State. This season has been a success for the Rangers in numerous ways. In Conference play, the boys are 4-0 which gives them an advantage heading into tournament play with their first round being a bye. Having a good conference record also sets them up for a more favorable road to the divisional championship. In addition from their conference success, they have many off the court accomplishments that they attribute a lot of their priorities to. Recently, head coach Layne Glaus and the boys have been doing a lot of team bonding. These include, going and watching former teammate, Laden Ricketts, play for MSU and taking turns holding team dinners at each other’s houses. “The best part about this basketball season must be our brother hood; everyone on the team is so close to each other. When anyone needs something, we always are there.” Brendon Johnson says.
Part of the big confidence booster these boys have, comes from their recent win against Lewistown who are 2nd in the conference and have only lost to Park. “It feels really good having that record. Beating Lewistown definitely brought gave us a lot of energy” Johnson states. When asked about the strengths the Park high boys have, “We get straight buckets; our defense is pretty good and play good as a team” Johnson states.
The boys’ preparation for Divisionals are explained as going to the gym and just trying to get as many shots in as possible. “We’ve had some history of not making it to Saturday, but I’m happy to say that I think we have a really good chance to making it to State this year.” Johnson ends. Make sure to come out and support your varsity boys in Billings!
The girls have improved dramatically from last season. Their 6-9 record (1-3 in conference play) has put them in a good position post season play. Much of this is attributed to the way they approached the season. In the pre-season, they did expectations of their teammates, how they can improve as a player and improve relationships outside of basketball. “When we click, all of us work well as a team, but sometimes when we are losing, we tend to try to do it ourselves which makes it much harder to win the game.” Skylar Higgs says. Overall, Higgs and the girls think that the goals have helped their mindset for the season and will continue to do it next year. Higgs concludes with the best part of the season being “All of us get along pretty well and try to make it as fun as we can”.
To prepare for Divisionals the Girls haven’t decided to do anything drastically different. “We usually just try to focus one game at a time and in practices usually do about 15-minute workouts along with other drills”.   “Our goal for Divisionals is to make it farther than we did last year, which was making it through the second day.” Higgs ends. State will be held in March.