Bolts start season as a title favorite in Class 4A | Local
For a normal high school basketball team, the first few weeks of training for a new group of players are used to build the chemistry at the beginning of the season.
But the Thunder Basin High School basketball team is not a normal team.
The Bolts are returning five of their greatest contributors from last year’s runner-up team in the country, including the team’s state backcourt with Seniors Deegan Williams and McKale Holte. Three other seniors – Cade Ayers, Ryan Baker and Ethan Cox – return to the team with high hopes of returning to the Class 4A championship game this year.
The five seniors have been playing basketball together practically their entire lives.
“The group was just fun coaching,” said fifth-year TBHS coach Rory Williams. “They are very coachable and they all get along well. Every year is special, but when you get a group like this that have played together for so long, I think the best word to describe it is exciting. “
The Bolts graduated from last year’s all-state striker Andre Felton. Felton was the Thunder Basin’s tallest player at 6ft3 and was often tasked with defending the opponent’s tallest guy.
Felton’s younger brother Darius Felton will replace Andre. The 6-foot-5 sophomore will replace his older brother as the tallest player in the Bolts lineup, while junior Kayden will bring LaFramboise in the paint at 6-foot-2.
Two more sophomores could envision playing for the Bolts earlier in the year, coach Williams said. Bodie Williams, Deegan’s younger brother, and Max Sorenson spent a lot of time with the varsity players.
While a starting rotation has not yet been set, the team will likely continue its tradition of playing on an on-watch offensive. Coach Williams has cemented the 3-pointer as a cornerstone of the Bolts’ goalscoring offensive.
The Bolts have lived and died with the 3-pointer since the program’s first season in 2017. But what makes the strategy work well for this year’s group is the amount of dangerous shooters Thunder Basin has on the ground at any given time.
“If someone doesn’t have the best shots, there will always be someone else who can have a good night shooting the ball,” said Holte. “If you miss a few shots, you always know someone is behind you or someone else is taking the shots.”
The Bolts’ offense relies heavily on finding an open jump shot, but the team is anything but one-dimensional. Deegan and Holte were both the best in the state when it came to hitting the basket when the team needed a basket late in the game.
Deegan finished his junior season fourth in the state with 17.4 points per game, while Holte finished 10th with 15 points per game.
As a team, the Bolts finished fifth with an average of 61.2 points per game, according to WyoPrep.com. Thunder Basin tried the third most 3-pointers with 26 attempts, a contest only behind Campbell County (30.3) and Kelly Walsh (26.9).
The most glaring weak point of the Bolts is their size, which led Thunder Basin to last year in class 4A in rebound with 21.9 rebounds per game. With a similar team this year in terms of size, the Bolts will focus on ways to counter teams with the height advantage.
The biggest counterpoint to size is getting into a shooting rhythm early in the game, Ayers said.
“When big teams can overtake us, we get in trouble because they can bully us,” said Ayers. “It’s great if we can get off to a good start shooting against these bigger teams.”
Last year’s team took a giant step by reaching the school’s first state championship game in Thunder Basin’s history last year. But the successful season ended with a small disappointment after a 55:40 loss to Cheyenne Central in the title game.
Fortunately for the Bolts, most of last year’s runners-up are back this year. The pain of losing in the last game of the season only spurs the team to return to this game for the state title this year.
“We came up short last year,” said Deegan. “It’s still been a good season and we’re not taking any of it, but we just have to clean up a few things to get back to where we were before.
“We’re a small team so we have to play fast, get more possession and get more points. We want the other teams to make the mistakes. “
The most important thing this year’s team should focus on early in the season is staying together as a group through the ups and downs of the schedule, Ayers said. The high team chemistry resulted in the deepest Bolts playoff run in school history last year and Ayers wants that carried over into this season.
“We just have to play together and be selfless,” said Ayers. “We have so many playmakers on our team. … The energy in training has been high so far because we have all known each other and have played together since we were little and we all have high expectations of our team this year. “
Coach Williams knows the pressure that comes with being one of the preseason title favorites. He will preach to his boys all year round to stay calm and collected through the three month season.
“You have to feed on this stuff because it’s going to be out there,” said Coach Williams. “Of course other teams will try to simulate what we’re doing, but high expectations are good.
“It’s good to have these expectations from your coaches, your teammates, the media, other coaches in the state, and fans and parents. We just have to be able to handle it properly. “
The Bolts will start the season by hosting the REMAX / Gillette Invitational tournament starting Thursday. Thunder Basin will receive Evanston on Thursday at 8 p.m. at TBHS.
The Bolts will also play on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Scottsbluff and on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. against Saint Thomas More from South Dakota.