Eagles claim Copper League Championship

SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake Elementary Eagles finished the season as the Copper League Champions after beating Bonner for first place March 17. Head Coach Bradley Miller said it was a great season, with a lot of improvements.

"I was a very, very lucky coach this year," Miller said. "I did a lot and I had to do a lot but they made it really easy towards the end of the season. They all figured it out and got together as a team and decided what they wanted to do and they went out and did it. That makes it really easy to coach girls when they are all on the same page and share the same goal."

While the number of girls fluctuated this season, the seventh and eighth grade A Team finished with four eighth graders and nine total. The fifth and sixth grade B Team was coached by Assistant Coach Mary Strumpfer and had 14 players, only one of whom was in sixth grade.

Miller said at the beginning of the season the girls had attitudes, were fighting, were not running the plays well and generally did not play as a team.

"My first goal was to squash that," Miller said. "I told them you don't have to be best friends but when we are on the basketball floor we've got to get along and we've got to play together."

He and Strumpfer identified that the struggle was between the older and the younger girls. Miller explained to the older girls that the younger players were not trying to antagonize them, instead they looked up to them and wanted to be like them. Miller said once the upper classmen figured that out, instead of pushing the younger girls away, they embraced them and challenged them to get better.

Miller said another challenge at the beginning of the season was the players lacked confidence and were scared to shoot the basketball.

"Every practice I emphasized they were suppose to shoot the basketball," Miller said. "If you miss, you just have to flush it, move on to the next play and shoot again if you are open."

While the older girls improved a lot, Miller said the fifth and sixth graders' improvement was night and day. They went from having very few skills or little knowledge of the game to competitively playing against tough teams.

"That was cool to see the younger girls get better and watching the older girls push them and cheer them on," Miller said. "I'm excited to see where those [fifth and sixth grade] girls go because I think if they keep playing together and they keep having good attitudes and having the same goal they will do some cool things."

Miller said when the players from Swan Valley joined they brought great attitudes. They shared the ball, wanted to play as a team and wanted to win.

In the Eagle's first game against Valley Christian, Miller said they started playing as a team. Once they started working together the plays came quickly and they were running them well.

"All across the board, girls were scoring and it was a team game," Miller said. "We weren't going through one player, everyone was touching the basketball, everyone was getting shots up, it just depended on who had the hot hand that night."

Miller said most games they scored around 45 points with the other team scoring in the single digits. He said that made it challenging as a coach when he tried to keep the scores closer.

"It didn't really matter who I put in, they ran the plays well," Miller said. "They all just really love basketball, they bought into the program and they wanted to win."

The Eagles lost a game early in the season to Clinton. After losing the coin toss, Clinton was first seed in the Cooper League Tournament followed by the second seed Eagles.

In their first game against DeSmet March 14, Miller said the Eagles started slow but they got it done.

Tuesday, they faced MIS. Miller felt that was the best game and toughest competition they had seen all year. The Eagles took an early eight-point lead and then traded shots back and forth. In the second half, the Eagles swept in and put it away.

Bonner, who was the fifth seed going into tournaments, upset Clinton early in the tournament. They faced the Eagles in the Championship game on Thursday at DeSmet.

Miller said the Eagles took an early six-to-eight-point lead that they held going into the second half. In the second half, "we came out and played the basketball that I know they are able to play and got it done."

Miller said at tournaments he could not have asked them to play better.

"They figured it out, ran with it and it showed when we played in the tournament," Miller said. "It was definitely exciting."

Miller said eighth graders Kilty Hanson and Haidyn Bradshaw from Seeley Lake Elementary and Lilly Boyd and Darby Gleason from Swan Valley Elementary exceeded his expectations.

"Watch out for these eighth graders in high school," Miller said. "They are going to be scary in high school. They all get along and they all share the ball well. I'm excited to watch them and see what they can do."

For the rest of the players, Miller added, "I'm going to miss them. They are an amazing group of girls and they were super, super fun."