Meet the new coach, who looks suspiciously like the old coach.

The Flathead Braves of 2020-21 are led by Dirk Johnsrud, who takes over for Ross Gustafson, for whom Johnsrud was junior varsity coach in 2018-19.

So it is that many of his players are very familiar.

“It’s not exactly a new coach for me,” Ethan Vandenbosch noted. “We had him as a JV coach two years ago. I really, really enjoyed him. As of right now it’s a great start to the year. We’re all getting after it.

“It's kind of a new era for Braves basketball. Anything new is good.”

“I had a feeling he was going to apply,” said Hunter Hickey, also a senior. “And I was excited. I really liked him my sophomore year, and I’m looking forward to the season.”

For his part so is Johnsrud, though his new position brought with it the pain of varsity tryouts and cuts.

“Definitely lost some sleep,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure we keep the right kids for our program.

“Despite COVID I thought we really had a good spring and summer. We had a lot of kids play a lot of basketball and I think that’s going to pay off this season. I like our size, I like our athleticism.”

The good news about last year’s 3-17 squad is that most of the points return: Leading scorer Joston Cripe (10.7 points per game) and Gabe Adams (10.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game) were 1-2 in scoring a year ago; Hickey (9.9 ppg) and Vandenbosch (5.3) were next.

“For the most part we had a pretty young team,” said Vandenbosch, who missed six games with injuries but added muscle on the boards (4.4 per game) upon his return. “A young starting group, I should say.”

Cripe, a junior, hit on 38 percent of his 3-point attempts a year ago. Adams, a 6-5 senior, has added range to his arsenal according to Hickey. “He’s put in a ton of work,” he said.

Helping out inside will be 6-9 senior Ezra Epperly, who blocked shots at a quick pace last season while averaging 1.2 points and 2.5 rebounds.

“There’s some experience,” Johnsrud said. “Hunter, Ethan, Ezra, Gabe — now it’s all about just bringing that together, being accountable, being disciplined, having some toughness. If we can do those things, we can turn some heads.”

The season is set to begin on Jan. 7 at Missoula Sentinel. Of course with the pandemic this could change. Vandenbosch obviously hopes the games happen sooner rather than later.

“Honestly, everyone wants to play,” he said. “That’s why you play basketball, so you can play the games. But the more practice we get the better we’re going to be. New offense or defense, press or press-breaker — it’s still beneficial to practice.”