After success in Montana Class C, Big Horn basketball teams are prepared to face Class B challenges with young rosters
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Lone Peak High School made a splash in their final Class C season last winter.
This year, the varsity programs step up to Class B, where they’ll face larger schools with bigger gyms and deeper rosters. District 5B opponents will include Three Forks, Manhattan, Ennis, Jefferson, Townsend (Broadwater) and Whitehall high schools.
Last year, the boys reached the Class C state tournament, and the girls almost joined, ending with a top-3 finish in the divisional round. Girls coach Loren Bough finished his Class C coaching career with a win—despite narrowly missing state in the double-elimination format. Boys coach Al Malinowski returned to his role after time away from coaching. After proving themselves last year, the future looks challenging, and potentially rewarding, for both teams who share at least one thing in common: a young core.
Coach Malinowski spoke on the phone with EBS about this new season and journey into Class B.
“I’m looking forward to sort of mixing our returning group—we do have three starters coming back from last year’s team that had a lot of success… but getting some of the guys who played JV last year into the mix,” Malinowski said.
So far, the boys are 2-0. They began with a win at Shields Valley High School, 54-38, and another in the Big Horns’ home opener on Dec. 2 against Gardiner High School, 82-50. Both were Class C opponents, but Malinowski was pleased—not only about the scoreboard, but also seeing young players step into varsity roles.
Three freshmen already played meaningful minutes, Malinowski said. His son, Ryan, went 4-4 in his second high school game, splashing three 3-pointers in his 11-point showing in the 82-point barrage. Miles Romney scored his first high school points on Dec. 2, and Sid Morris made his high school debut.
The team lost four seniors from last year, including Lone Peak’s all-time leading rebounder Max Romney and point guard Gus Hammond, both former captains and top-10 all-time scorers. But the Big Horns return with some hot hands: sophomore Ebe Grabow, junior Isaac Bedway and senior Juliusz Shipman.
Bedway and Grabow combined for 32 of the team’s 54 points in the first game, and 47 of the team’s 82 in the second game. Shipman scored 15 in the season opener, but will miss some time due to injury. Bedway and Grabow are also averaging double-digit rebounds to help fill Romney’s shoes.
“It’s pretty neat to see where our older players are already showing confidence in those younger guys as they come into the game,” Malinowski said. He noted that both Grabow and Bedway joined LPHS basketball last year, so it hasn’t been long since they made their own high school debuts.
“Our offense is probably clicking a little bit better than I would have expected this early. Putting up 82 points… To do that in game two with a group that’s learning to play together tells me our offense is there, we just need to learn to play together on the defensive side,” he said.
Defense might be a key challenge against some of the big bodies in Class B. The Big Horns will need defensive rebounds to limit strong opponents to one shot per possession.
“They’re confident,” Malinowski said on joining Class B. “It’s certainly going to be a challenge… We’ll be a team that keeps growing together and rise to the challenge.”
Players without deep varsity experience will need to step up this season. Seniors Charlie Distad and Aidan Germain and juniors Grady Towle and Jack Sheehan are on the right track through opening games and practices, Malinowski said. The team looks forward to welcoming back sophomore Oliver McGuire soon from studying abroad.
High school size can be a disadvantage for team depth. Lone Peak, Whitehall and Ennis are similar-sized schools, with about 100 students. Townsend has about 200 students, Three Forks and Manhattan around 250, and Jefferson almost 300. From the larger schools, Malinowski expects larger players and more of them.
The Dec. 2 blowout win marked the 100th victory in boys basketball program history. Last year’s state tournament fueled the program’s hunger for playoff success.
“The group that’s returning enjoyed that experience and wants to go through it again,” Malinowski said. “And we have seven freshmen [who] watched that happen and are excited to join a program that was having that kind of success.”
The introduction to Class B might test the Big Horns, but with only a few seniors set to graduate, the coming years look promising.
The boys team is also coached by Jon Riebe, Garrett Kemberling, James Grevenitz and Michael Romney.
Young girls team building from the bottom up
The girls are off to a strong start as well, with a 1-1 record after losing to Shields Valley High School and dominating Gardiner High School, 65-38.
EBS spoke with John McGuire, former assistant coach now taking the torch from former head coach Loren Bough, who McGuire says left the program in tremendous shape. It’s a new chapter for the basketball program, and McGuire is thrilled to have a team of 15 players, which allows for JV competition.
The program only has two seniors and two juniors, however, and the remaining 11—six sophomores and five freshmen—will need to gain high school experience in a challenging Class B environment.
A significant void is left by the graduation of last year’s seniors—Jessie Bough, Maddie Cone, Kate King and Josie Wilcynski were all impact players—but McGuire believes the program is in a great place.
This season, senior captains Astrid McGuire and Vera Grabow will stand out as team leaders. In the win against Gardiner, McGuire scored 30 of the team’s 65 points, and Grabow scored 25. McGuire said they were phenomenal.
“We’re looking forward to identifying and nurturing future leadership for the team and the program,” he added. Rising leaders will include juniors Addy Malinowski and Anna Masonic, and sophomores Harper Morris, Maddie Wilcynski and Poppy Towle, McGuire said.
“We’re fired up and looking forward to the challenge,” he said. “We’ve already seen a ton of team and individual growth since practices started mid-November.”
And for this young team, McGuire emphasized that their record won’t define a successful season.
“We are all about the girls having a great time, growing as players and as people,” he said. The coaches—including ex-college player Jessica Bedway, kindergarten teacher Christine Toy and long-standing coach Erika Frounfelker—already see a very positive culture growing.
McGuire is also pleased by the depth feeding into the program, with 20 girls on the fifth and sixth grade team, and 14 girls on the seventh and eighth grade team.
He also emphasized that Class B provides an opportunity for the maturing program to build strength against tough competition.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said.
