Gators Look to Play Fast in 2015-16

Gators look to play fast in 2015-16 By: Ryan Bergeron

Head BGMR Gators Boys Basketball Coach Kent Christian lost seven seniors to graduation, but he has six seniors and a number of underclassmen, many with not a lot of varsity experience, looking to step up this season. Starting practice with his team on Monday, November 9, Coach Christian looks forward to leading a group comprised of “coachable, good kids” in his twelfth year at the helm.

“I really like their work ethic. They want to do well. They seem to get along,” Coach Christian said. “So, I’m really excited to see how we progress. Like I said, we’re trying some different things early in the year here, in a different style, so it will be interesting to see if that pans out.”

The seven senior the Gators lost from last year’s team included: leading scorer Aaron Dostal (15.4 PPG), Matt Howell, Darius Watson, Cody Kirkeide, Wyatt Peppel, Logan Dvergsten and Logan Klegstad. These athletes provided much experience to last year’s team. The effect this lost experience will have on this year’s team all depends on this year’s players.

“This year we have a lot of seniors and juniors, but they’re just not real experienced, so whether or not they can make that step up to the varsity level is yet to be seen.”

This year’s Gator boys basketball program is comprised of 43 players in seventh to twelfth grade, including six seniors, six juniors, six sophomores, nine freshman, five eighth graders and eleven seventh graders.

Coach Christian commented on each senior of this year’s team. Colton Penas, standing at 6’5 and having played with the program since the beginning of his career, has worked on his outside shot, but his coach hopes to see him “mix it up” more inside.

The next senior, Ben Lieberg, standing 6’6, had limited action last season, suffering through some concussion issues, but his coach said he appears at full strength and looks for him to provide a tough presence inside and rebound the ball strongly.

Another senior, standing at 5’8, Trever Robinson (3 PPG last season, the highest average of any player remaining from last year’s roster), has proved to be a leader and has shown much improvement in his game thus far.

“Robinson has probably worked harder on his game than just about anybody, so we’re looking for big things from him,” Coach Christian said.

As for the next senior, Robby Davy, standing at 5’11, his coach considers him a hard-working athlete who “brings his lunch bucket to work everyday.”

Tyler Becker, another senior, standing at 6’0, is new to the Gator program, transferring from North Dakota. Coach Christian looks forward to what he will provide the Gators this season. As for the final senior, Chase Anderson, standing at 5’11, has also worked on his game during the offseason and his head coach hopes he provides a strong presence in the perimeter game. “We’re definitely going to need him to score for us and get some outside shots down,” Coach Christian said.

The head coach has his eyes on many underclassmen and says many will see playing time, especially important in implementing a harder and faster style of play. He named this style after the current Philadelphia Eagles head football coach.

“We call it Chip Kelly on steroids,” Christian said.

For those not familiar with Kelly or football, Coach Christian explained this style. The Gators look to play full-court press defense, not allowing the other team to score fast. On offense, they look to get up and down the court and shoot the ball often.

For this to work, the Gators will need many underclassmen to substitute and play. The coach has his eyes on several possible impact players.

Junior Skyler Forst, standing at 5’10, has a good shot and is improving on defense. Another junior, Jordan Watson, standing at 5’7, is coming off a concussion from the football season, but his coach is hoping he gets “everything squared away.” Junior, Austin Aune, standing at 6’0, rebounds and plays hard, leading his coach to compare him to senior Robby Davy’s “lunch bucket mentality.” Conner Graff, junior, has some size, standing at 6’3, and is a left-handed player--an attribute his coach said can throw opposing teams off.

Coach Christian also will look to a couple sophomores to make an impact. Jack Peppel , standing at 6’4, has looked solid in practice. Also a lefty, he has a strong inside presence, as his coach calls him “the silent killer.” Standing at 6’1, Shaun Waage wishes he could have played more with his teammates in the summer, but Coach Christian said he has looked okay in practices.

Speaking of practice, the head coach commented that one factor holding his team back currently is missing practice time due to a lack of “quality” practice facilities.

Move to AA: The Gator boys and girls basketball program will head into their third season as a Class AA team following the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) reclassification. These classifications last two years before the MSHSL reclassifies these teams based on enrollment. The MSHSL did just this after the Gator basketball program played AA for two years, and, based on enrollment, kept each program in Class AA. This move hasn’t affected the program’s scheduling this season. After first being moved up to Class AA, the boys’ program decided to keep its schedule the same, believing they would move back down after two years.

Since this didn’t happen, Coach Christian said they would have to examine their schedule more. The reason? Teams are seeded in postseason play partially on QRF computer ratings. Under this system, AA teams need to have other AA teams on their schedule. This doesn’t have anything to do with the competition at Class A, having many solid teams as Coach Christian explained. It’s due, he said, to Class AA versus Class A games counting against the AA team under the QRF system. Last year, the Gator program scheduled a road game versus Class AA East Grand Forks Senior High. This year Senior High will make its way to Greenbush. As mentioned earlier, the head coach mentioned how Minnesota has many good Class A teams, but this doesn’t mean he doesn’t see any difference at all in the Class AA competition level.

“Some mistakes you can get away with maybe in single A, you can’t against the upper echelon teams in double A. They’re just a little bit more consistent,” the head coach said.

Success: Coach Christian said his team of course wants to win a state championship, but pointed out only four teams get to do this in the state. He defines success as something a little different.

“Success for me probably is... that they perform to the best of their abilities,” he said. “They become the best team that they can be; that’s the ultimate success.”

Helping the head coach achieve this success with these young men include: Jordan Creviston (Junior Varsity coach), Jakob Heggedal (C-Team coach), Joel Brichacek (Eight grade coach) and Jacob Rath (Seventh grade coach).

Coach Christian encourages Gator fans to come out and support these boys.

“We would loves to see the fans come out,” he said. “A lot of the guys have been with the program for a long time. I think (they) deserve Gator Nation support.”

Copyrighted article of The Tribune