Badger girl basketball has seen a decrease in players coming out, but that doesn’t phase Bonners Ferry coach Mike Crowley.

Crowley was the boys basketball head coach a few year back and coached for two non consecutive seasons. He also coached the girls program about seven years ago. 

Last season the Badger girls were plagued with injuries and illnesses before the regular season. The team adapted with many junior varsity players stepping up to varsity play. 

Last year 27 girls came out for basketball and a C-team was formed for younger players to play and compete. This year the program has only had 15 girls come out.

Crowley said the team will be low on substitutes, but that players will have plenty of playing time between varsity and JV. He added that playing defense might be difficult, and so the program is focusing on conditioning. 

“Some of them will have to be Ironmen,” he said. 

His original plan for defense was to full court press, run the ball and have subs coming in regularly, but with the lack of athletes the game plan is evolving.
“The kids work hard. We don’t have a lot of size but are quick and have depth, so scoring will not be hard,” he said. “Fundamentally the younger players are solid, but it’s a matter of having them playing with older players and connecting.”

Crowley said the main focus is teaching athletes to be good basketball players. 

One way of teaching is having the players run drills where they make decisions, such as three-on-two drills. 

Last season the Badger girls basketball (11-11) finished off the season falling to the Timberlake Tigers (20-2) twice in a best-of-3 series for the 3A District I girls basketball title.

Last season, then junior, Asha Abubakari led the Badgers in scoring and rebounding with 308 points and 117 rebounds. She averaged 17.1 points per game last season. 

Crowley said at the time of the second week of practice that he had not decided on the starting five, rather he would choose starters at the beginning of each game. 

He said that the decision of the starting five will be based on their opponent and who the Badgers need and in what position they need to be to be successful for that particular game. 

The Badgers have three year varsity players in seniors, Abubakari, and Markynn Pluid. 

Pluid averaged 9.1 points per game last season and led the team in rebounds with 7.5 per game. 

Upcoming players include freshman point guard Taren Bateman, sophomore Makenna Baisden, junior Sydney Hinthorn, junior Brooke Petesech, and senior Emma Thompkins. 

Hinthorn has returned after recovering from a knee injury and only played nine games last season. She led the team in steals, averaging 3.7 per game, and earned 33.

The Badger played 4A Moscow and 4A Sandpoint to start the 2023-24 season.