There are high hopes for the hoopers this year at Bigfork High School, with the Valkyries coming off a second-place finish in their first year of Class A play.  

The Vals will return four varsity players; junior team captain and point guard Paeten Gunlock, senior team captain and guard Braeden Gunlock, senior team captain and guard Keni Wade, and senior attacking guard Ava Davey, recovering from injury. Junior guard Chloe Norred will also return to play after sustaining an injury at the end of last season.  

Paeten leads Class A in steals with 5.3 per game, and Braeden recently signed with Brigham Young University’s basketball team.  

Cortnee Gunlock, who has served as head coach for the Vals for six seasons, led them to a Class B third Place finish in 2022 and Class B championship in 2023 as well as last year’s historic Class A finish.  

“These accomplishments are a testament to the players’ and coaching staff's hard work, dedication, and leadership,” Cortnee said.  

The coaching staff will be joined this year by Ellie Jordt, a varsity player when the Valkyries won the 2023 state championship.  

Adding to the team are sophomore guard Keegan Campbell, sophomore forward Somer Campos, junior guard and Canadian transfer student Leah Gibb, freshman guard Peyton DeSpain, and freshman forward Savannah Hedges.  

“Like all teams with experienced players moving forward, our program expectations, goals, and priorities shift,” Cortnee said. “We are optimistic about the potential and hope to add more players to our postseason roster as the season progresses. Beyond our varsity level, we are in transition, focusing on the development of our five sophomores and 12 freshmen.” 

Boys basketball will return varsity player Austin Savik.  

“[Savik] is an All-State caliber player, he is very skilled and a great shooter. He is going to be one of the toughest guys in our conference to guard,” said John Hollow, who enters his sixth season as head coach at Bigfork.  

“We lost a bunch of seniors last year that were multiyear starters, so we are essentially starting over with a bunch of new guys in the rotation this year.” 

Junior Jack Ludke, senior Quinn Herring and junior Trecker Hickey also saw varsity play last year and will be back on the court for the Vikes this season.  

Six-foot-three post Herring suffered an injury last season, and Hollow is excited to see him back under the basket.  

“I am expecting great things of him. He is very physical around the basket,” Hollow said.  

New to varsity will be junior defender Tamret Savik, sophomore point guard Alex Ochs and junior Grady Campbell.  

“I am really excited to watch them grow as the season goes on. We have talent, size, great work ethic and the thing I am most excited about is how well they work together as a team and play for one another,” Hollow said.  

Bigfork plays their first varsity games of the season starting Friday, Dec. 13 at Frenchtown Middle School versus Beaverhead County; boys at 12:30 p.m. and girls at 2:30 p.m. Play will continue Saturday versus Frenchtown, girls at 6:30 p.m. and boys at 8 p.m.