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Buhl High School
School Info
Conference: 3A Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference
Classification: 3A
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Head Coach: Dan Winn
Years as Head Coach: 6th Season
Previous Experience: 2 Years Head Coach at Castleford High School
Record Last Year: 20-6
State Titles: 1975, 1979, 2014
Assistant Coaches:
Derrik Brinkman, Ty Popplewell, Dan Hill, Kody Bingham, Jimmy Newberry
Returning Athletes:
Michael Lively F 12
Hayden Eckert G 12
Tegon Tonge F 12
Kasey Crossland G 12
Cody Couch G 12
Colby Rodig F 12
Jim Elkin F 11
Returning Players with Honors:
Hayden Eckert (5’9’), Senior Point Guard, #3
2-Time Idaho All-State, First Team (2015, 2014)
Times-News Big School Player of the Year 2015
3-Time SCIC All-Conference, First Team (2015, 2014, 2013)
4-year Varsity Starter
Michael Lively (6’6”), Senior Forward, #10
Idaho All-State, First Team (2015)
SCIC Conference Player of the Year, 2015
2-Time SCIC All-Conference, First Team (2015, 2014)
4-Year Varsity Player
Tegon Tonge (6’2”), Senior Forward, #30
Idaho All-State, Second Team (2015)
SCIC All-Conference, First Team (2015)
3-Year Varsity Player
Returning from Injury—Kasey Crossland (6’3”), Senior Guard, #24
Missed Entire 2014-15 Season (ACL Surgery)
Idaho All-State, Second Team (2014)
2-Time SCIC All-Conference, First Team (2014, 2013)
Varsity Starter since Freshman Year
“Key Players” lost from last year:
Ryan Loveless, G—First Team SCIC All-Conference, East West All-Star Game JC Juker, G—Hardest Worker, Great Athlete, Great Leader
Incoming “impact” players:
Jim Elkin, F, 11—Started first Varsity Game Last year at State Tournament as a sophomore
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Team Preview:
Written By: Sven Alskog
During a state football play-in game last October against Shelley a scary moment occurred when Buhl star Kasey Crossland went down with an ACL injury. That injury forced him to sit out the entire basketball season, leaving the Indians scrambling to fill the gap left without Crossland.
Buhl would go on to finish 20-6, culminating the season with a tight 47-42 loss to South Fremont in the 3A championship. Now they have Crossland back, making them one of the favorites again in the 3A classification.
“We are very fortunate and blessed to have some great talent in our program right now. We are returning four players who have been named to an Idaho All-State team, and I’m not sure how many teams have had that before,” said Head Coach Dan Winn.
The experience of the team should be a major benefit.
“We have multiple players who have played varsity basketball since they were freshmen, and we’ve played for the last two state championships,” added Winn. “We are experiencing something bigger than us, something that brings our school and community together for some exciting basketball. We are very energized for the return of Kasey Crossland from an ACL injury, and he has grown 4 inches since his last basketball game.”
Crossland will be joined by an outstanding core group featuring All-State honorees Hayden Eckert, Michael Lively and Tegon Tonge. Eckert will patrol the offense from the point guard position, while Lively and Tonge provide multiple options on how to get the ball in the basket. Tonge is effective when driving to the basket and Lively is a strong interior presence at 6’6” for Buhl.
“We have multiple offensive weapons, which gives us diversity in our offense,” said Winn. “We truly have an inside/outside attack, with many players who can get buckets for us.”
Winn mentioned Jim Elkin as another presence inside to go with Lively and Cody Crouch as a good offensive weapon as well.
As usual with Buhl, expect plenty of tempo on each side of the floor.
“We are an up-tempo team that’s averaged over 61 points per game each of the past two years,”said Winn. “We have an exciting group of boys that play hard, share the ball and have fun. We try to make our community proud by our effort and our teamwork.”
Buhl will play man-to-man defense, with rebounding a major factor in the overall success of the team. Winning the boards leads to transition opportunities for the offensive weapons. There is always room for improvement though.
“We like to play aggressively, but sometimes we need to play as a single defensive unit instead of individuals trying to make a great play,” said Winn. “We are getting better at this. We also need to get rebounding from multiple sources.”
With plenty of talent and experience on the floor, the key to the season is pretty simple. Stay healthy.
“We need to stay healthy and we need to be ready for every game to be an absolute battle. I’m sure the other teams in our area are growing tired of our success and would love nothing better than to put us down in defeat,” said Winn.
The 3A Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference has continued to improve overall as well.
“Our conference is really good, and they will be ready for us,” added Winn. “Even with our huge success over the past two years [44-7 overall], a team in our conference has beaten us each year. We need to focus on getting just a little better every day in practice, so we can peak when the district tournament arrives.”
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