Players to Watch:
Brody Beck, Aberdeen
Seth Hall, Aberdeen
Tyler Beresford, Bear Lake
Keaton Carlsen, Bear Lake
Brady Shaul, Bear Lake
Braylen Tripp, Malad
Rhett Yamauchi, Soda Springs
Eli Brown, West Side
Owen Nielsen, West Side
Written by: Keller Sherman
Bear Lake didn’t just have its way with West Side in football in the 2022 calendar year. Much earlier in the year, the Bears swiped a conference title right out of the Pirates’ hands winning a 49-47 overtime thriller in the district championship game. After West Side got past Nampa Christian in the state play-in game, they extracted some revenge beating Bear Lake 40-28 in the first round of the state tournament. That was it for the Pirates however as they lost consecutive games to St Maries and North Fremont to finish in 4th place.
The Bears were a mirror version of West Side from that point forward, beating Firth and Ambrose to win consolation. The Bears would love nothing more than to make it out of day one on the right side of the bracket while the Pirates will look to get back to the state championship game for the first time since 2020. West Side and Bear Lake will be the favorites to win the conference yet again, but could someone else step up and surprise?
Aberdeen brings in a new head coach in Ryan Wahlen and returns many key players from last year’s team. Brody Beck, Seth Hall, Marshall Elliott, Ramiro Juarez, Cale Adamson, and Jaycee Bright are all back and are ready to surprise some people this year. If that was not enough, the Tigers are bringing in four new players. Trace King, Griffin Knittel, Wesley Nelson, and Stokes Wahlen are the new entries to the varsity roster. Furthermore, only one senior graduated. Dynamite scorer and athletic point guard Justus Bright will be missed, but there are plenty of players ready to fill his shoes.
The Tigers will use a motion offense that returns leading scorers Beck and Hall. They will look to play at a faster pacer that creates more possessions and maximizes the opportunities during that time with the ball. The defense has been a struggle however. Elliott, Juarez, and Bright will be the core of a defense that has a lot of improvement to make.
While Aberdeen does return the vast majority of its players, there are some injuries that are still being dealt with by some of the players that also played football. Wahlen believes that the chemistry will be strong within his team and the new additions to the roster will only strengthen that chemistry. With the coaching change, the key to the Tigers having success this season will be how quickly the players buy into the schemes that Wahlen hopes to implement in his first year on the job.
West Side will face some major roster turnover this season. They do not bring back any starters and Owen Nielsen and Eli Brown saw limited varsity minutes last season. 3 year starters Bryler Shurtliff and Blaize Brown are gone and a new group comes in that head coach Tyler Brown hopes can come in and have an impact.
The offense will focus on getting to the rim and getting good looks to knock down jumpers while the Pirates will mostly utilize a man defense. Brown is excited to see how his new group plays and how they come together as a team will dictate whether the Pirates can be in the conversation for a conference title as they have for a majority of Brown’s tenure.
Bear Lake looks more and more like they may be the clear favorite to win the conference title this season. The Bears return their entire starting five, all of which were just a part of Bear Lake’s first ever state championship in football. Bears’ quarterback Tayson Neal will look to be just as impressive on the hardwood as he was on the gridiron this season while Brady Shaul, Keaton Carlsen, Tyler Beresford, and Bryson Crane will also look to transfer the skills they showed in football this season to basketball. While the entire starting five is back, Jake Smith and Brayden Sparks are gone. 15th year head coach Brandon Carlsen will miss them for the energy they brought off the bench. Athletic defender Rhett Lloyd and rim defender Ridge Walletine will look to have a strong presence when they come off the bench this season.
Carlsen believes anyone on the Bears’ offense can score and he hopes to see his offense be more consistent. The defense has great speed that can keep offenses on their toes and it will only get better as the year goes on. Bear Lake was young last year, but now that the team has grown a year, Carlsen is excited to have all his starters back and see that growth show on the court. Staying healthy and getting better every day will take the Bears far this season.
Soda Springs went 12-13 overall last season, but was only able to notch a 2-6 record in league play with both wins coming against last place Malad. It was not all bad for the Cardinals however. After losing a hard fought 40-30 contest to West Side in the first round of the district tournament, Soda Springs got another shot at the Pirates after beating Aberdeen in an elimination game. They lost a heartbreaking four point decision that denied the Cardinals an opportunity to go to the district championship game against Bear Lake. Can they use coming so close at the tail end of last season as motivation to make some noise this year?
Malad had a disappointing season last year going 0-8 in conference and 2-20 overall. The Dragons have been on a decline since winning consolation at state in 2020. The 2020-21 season saw Malad go 1-6 in conference and 7-15 overall. However, new head coach Zach Beutler is fully committed to turning around the program that has hit on dark times. He feels that the Dragons are already taking steps forward as he states “We are seeing positive progression with the boys through the summer and preseason. We have a good core of athletic kids and will be working hard to help them maximize their potential on the basketball court.”
With the amount of talent Bear Lake returns, they have a legitimate shot to make it two for two with state titles in the two biggest sports in the state between football and boys basketball. It wouldn’t be the program’s first however as the Bears have won three state titles in boys basketball most recently going back-to-back in 2017 and 2018. Aberdeen and West Side will look to challenge as well while Soda Springs hopes that they built some momentum after playing their hearts out down the stretch last season. Malad is in rebuild mode and will also look to contend after last going to state as recently as three years ago.
Will the talent at Bear Lake and Aberdeen win the day? Can West Side still have a great year in the absence of great talent as the football team did? Do Soda Springs and Malad have what it takes to compete with the top teams in the league? These questions will all be answered in the next couple months as another great race should be on the horizon in the Southeast Idaho Conference.