Red Devils rev up for basketball
Despite a successful 14-10 overall finish, including a solid 7-3 conference mark last season, the Red Devil’s are raising the bar in their expectations for the upcoming basketball season.
“For the last three years we haven’t made it out of the district tournament,” Noxon head coach Mike Tessier said. “So this year, a big goal of ours is to get out of the district tournament and go on to divisionals. We’re definitely shooting for that.”
Although, advancing to divisional is no easy task, the Red Devils have seven returning lettermen including three starters and one first team all-conference player in Bank Stocking.
Adding to their winning pedigree and returning talent, Noxon will feature some new schemes on both offense and defense in order to best fit their current roster.
“We’ve definitely got some personnel this year that we’re able to do some things that we’ve never been able to do, or haven’t been able to do in awhile,” Tessier said. “We’re definitely looking forward to a good season from kids that have a lot of experience and are pretty athletic.”
Like any high school team, the Red Devils lost several seniors last year, but Tessier believes their additions will outweigh the subtractions.
One off Noxon’s new strengths will be their inside game. Tessier boasts one of the tallest teams he’s seen in his tenure as head coach and expects that size to benefit his team as the season wears on.
Although they will feature a relatively young roster, Tessier feels that his young players have had enough playing time that they will be ready to step in and contribute on the varsity level.
Potential, however, can be a dirty word for coaches and Tessier knows that the litmus test his for Red Devils will be the Sanders County tournament beginning next weekend in Plains.
“We’re definitely feel like we have a good enough team this year to go in there and win that thing,” Tessier said. “It’s going to be a dog-fight for us, but we’ve definitely got a team this year where we feel like we can go somewhere.”
“It’s great for the Sanders County Schools and fans involved and we’re really looking forward to a competitive tournament and it should be enjoyable for everybody involved,” he said. “We’ve always had a really good following from not only our parents, but our community members too. We’ll expect a pretty good crowd up there from the Noxon end.”