TER suffers growing pains under Irvine

At the beginning of the year, one of my favorite teams to watch was the Two Eagle River boys’ team. Under new coach Lloyd Irvine Jr. the team showed great potential. Irvine has been around the block when it comes to basketball. 

He came from coaching at Hardin, a Northern A powerhouse in the last several years.

As a former Northern division athlete myself, I can attest to the fact that basketball is life up there.

Irvine told me at the beginning of the season that he wants to build the same sort of program at Two Eagle.

Well, I believe that he got the team started in the right direction this year.

Even though the Eagles finished off their season with only five wins, I think they are in a better place than they were at the beginning of the season.

However, along the way, Irvine’s stern style of coaching meant that kids were dismissed from the team. “There were a few kids we had to let go due to disciplinary reasons,” he said a few weeks ago as they finished up their regular season.

Irvine explained how basketball can related to real life. He was having some issues with kids making it to practice. “It’s like a regular job, you get fired if you’re not at work. I try to teach them that concept...you need to be here,” he said, “You need to learn what it takes to be successful on the court as well as off the court.”

While some kids struggled to adjust to the new style of Coach Irvine, others adjusted. “Our younger guys are really improving a lot. The younger ones are the future of this team,” said.

One steady hand this season as Julian Cut Finger, a senior who, as far as I could tell, almost always kept his cool. “Julian Cut Finger is an outstanding player. He works hard. He just goes out there and plays the game of basketball,” Irvine said. Cut Finger, whose last name I finally started spelling right, was a fun kid to watch. After the regular season, he was one of the top scorers in the county.

As this season finished up for the Eagles, Irvine discussed what will make a better team for next year. “You have to play together all the time to be successful,” he said.

I hope that those boys do play together in the offseason. With a coach like Irvine, I think that they can only go up from here.