Chiefs basketball gets ready to get hit the hardwood
RONAN HIGH School Aaron Misa (15) positions himself for a rebound in the 2016 non-conference game against Polson. The Chiefs will play Polson in a conference game this season because of the reclassification that was mandated by the Montana State High School Athletic Association in late 2016. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
Ronan Chiefs’ boys basketball coach Mitchell Wassum said he is excited about his team’s prospects as they prepare to head into the first official week of practice on Nov. 16.
Last year, Wassum’s team fell one point short of claiming a Class B state title birth falling to Deer Lodge at Hamilton Junior High School.
Last season, the team’s biggest strengths included their depth, their ability to shoot from the perimeter and the Chiefs’ senior and team leaders.
The Chiefs will look to build upon one of their hallmarks last season as they were able to successfully utilize their depth to win several closely-contested ball games.
Another emphasis of strength this season will be to be able to rebound. With the team dynamic shifting dramatically from last season with the loss of four seniors and surrendering more height to the bigger schools in Class A, Wassum knows his team will have to put an emphasis on rebounding.
“You have to be able to rebound the ball and we are going to have to be able to force some turnovers and get a lot of second shot opportunities,” Wassum said. “It’ll be be an interesting team dynamic with losing the four seniors in the early portion of the season. Especially since the seniors from last year all started for us at one point in time.”
Wassum’s team will be entering uncharted territory this season as they prepare to play some of the Class A schools but Wassum echoed the sentiments of the Chiefs’ head football coach Matt Detwiler, who said he is embracing the challenge of moving up in classification.
“We are going to change up the tempo of our offense a little bit,” Wassum said. “This year, we lost two of our big kids to transfers and with that, we lost some size. So we will have to move into more of an uptempo offense and try to get teams out of their element to make them uncomfortable. That will help us out against some of the bigger teams.”
This year, according to Wassum, Ronan looks to have more of the same as they prepare to head into the 2017-2018 campaign.
“I am really excited to get the season rolling,” Wassum said. “Being on the football staff, we have high expectations coming up from Class B to A. We aren’t going to roll over and battle. There are a lot of good Class A teams and we’ve been very competitive in open gym with about 30-45 kids participating in open gym.”