Basketball season is officially underway and the Badger boys are looking to improve on last year’s successes. The Herald caught up with head coach Andy Rice and his players during practice this week.

Rice, who is going into his third year as head coach for the varsity team at Bonners Ferry, says he has six players returning from last year’s team. That squad ended up finishing second in the Intermountain League, but they suffered a dissapointing loss in the post-season play-in game that prevented them from making it into the state tournament.

According to Rice though, the league has undergone some changes this year. Last year, he explains, there were only one and a half berths to the state tournament given to the IML, meaning the number one ranked team automatically received a berth while the second- and third-ranked teams had to fight it out for the other. This year, however, because of the addition of Cour d’Alene Charter Academy to the IML, there will be two automatic berths to the state basketball tournament.

“You never know how they’re going to do because they’re a charter school,” Rice says, referring to Cour d’Alene Charter Academy. “They might have [a great player] last year, and then somebody new comes in. You never know what they’re gonna have,” the coach continues. “They’re always kind of a wild card.”

Time will tell whether or not the public charter school will be a team to contend with, but Rice is happy with the situation either way as it improves his team’s chances of making it to state. According to Rice, who coached the junior varsity team for three years before moving up to the varsity level, the teams in the IML are usually pretty consistent.

Coach Rice says he is most concerned with one team in particular this year: “Kellogg will be the team to beat.”

“After that,” Rice continues, “I think it’s going to be pretty competitive. Timberlake is good...Priest River is scrappy, they’re gonna be good.”

The Badgers played their first game of the season against Newport on Tuesday, Nov. 29, and won 56-44.

After taking control in the first quarter and outscoring Newport 13-2, the Bonners Ferry Team continued to run the court offensively.

Caleb Stockton and Caleb Harrington both came up big in the season opener. Stockton, who led the team in scoring with 17 points, knocked down three out of five three-point attempts. Harrington had a double-double, with 11 rebounds and 13 points.