Your future, our focus
Get ready for some Trapper basketball.
Northwest College’s women’s and men’s squads will hit the road this weekend for their first two games of the season before playing at home on Tuesday.
On Friday, both basketball teams face off against Bismarck State College. The women’s game will start at 6 p.m. and the men’s at 8 p.m.
At noon on Saturday, the Lady Trappers will play United Tribes Technical College with the men following at 2 p.m.
The women’s team has three returning players out of 14 and one transfer.
Returning are Lauren Hinckley, Maddy Johnson and Jessica Lohrenz, who redshirted last season due to an injury; Jessie Lessard is a transfer from Eastern Wyoming College.
“We have a lot of versatility with this team. We can play big if needed. (We) can also play smaller and quicker,” said Janis Beal, NWC women’s head basketball coach. “With so many new players, we are still trying to figure out our identity.”
Beal is in her fifth season as head coach at NWC.
On the men’s side, 11 of the 17 players on the roster are returning from last year. Of those, five are true sophomores (Jordyson Telford, Jonathan Koud, Sukhjot Bains, Levi Londole and Joey Jewell), three are redshirt sophomores (Skyler Zabriskie, Seth Bennett and Damon Leach) and three are redshirt freshmen.
Marshall McArthur and Carter Baxter — Powell High School graduates — are two of the redshirt freshmen, with Tanner Coleman being the third.
McArthur was kept out of competition last year, having just returned from a church mission; Baxter transferred in from the University of Wyoming after the first semester.
Also from Powell is freshman Stephen Parker, who graduated from Powell High School in 2009.
“For right now, we are a team that’s growing, still a lot of work left,” said Brian Erickson, NWC men’s basketball head coach. “We have a group of guys that I think collectively, that if we can play together, we can do a lot of good things.”
Erickson is in his fourth season as head coach for the Trappers.
Both the women’s and the men’s team had two pre-season scrimmages in the middle of October.
“I think those scrimmages are kind of meant to show the things you struggle with, the difficulties you have to overcome,” said Erickson. “I think the best thing that came out of it was we watched film and this week in our practices, the intensity’s gone up even more. So, I’d guess we were successful in a different way as in when you think of winning or losing. Now, we just got to keep doing it.”
On the weekend of Oct. 14, the NWC women traveled to the Sheridan College Jamboree Scrimmage and the men went to the Montana State University- Northern Scrimmage; both teams competed in the Salt Lake Community College Scrimmage on the weekend of Oct. 21.
“Scrimmages are a great opportunity for us as a team to see what needs to get worked on and gives everyone an opportunity to play,” said Beal. “We saw huge improvements at the scrimmages in Salt Lake City from the scrimmages the week before in Sheridan. Overall I’m very pleased with the team and their effort to this point.”
Tuesday will be the Trappers’ first home game of the season, with both teams hosting Yellowstone Christian College. The women will start the night at 5:30 p.m. while the men tip off at 7:30 p.m.