While Clark Fork's head coach Stillman Berkeley doesn't have a complete team, there's an equation his team will be embracing in the 2026-207 boys' basketball season. 

Quality and intense defense equals turnovers and easy offense. Berkeley said his Wampus Cats need to be a defense-focused team this season if they want to find success in their return to the 1A North Star League. 

"We have learned that even though we have offense, we need to be a defensive team first," Berkeley said. "If we have a shot this year, which I think we potentially do in this 1A bracket. We just have to take defense as a top priority." 

For this incoming squad, Berkeley said their focus will be on restricting the opposing team's drives and post presence. Unlike last year, Clark Fork won't have an imposing big man and will need to lean on their athleticism to keep teams contained and create fast-break chances. 

Clark Fork's head coach said that the team will rely on an up-tempo play style on both ends of the court, which should help them early on. In Idaho, most high school boys basketball teams get around two weeks to practice together before the regular season kicks off, making it tough to implement an offense with a new group. 

"If you get good presses in place and get some steals, you have fast break opportunities, and the fast break opportunities are what I'm going to be pushing for early in the season," Berkeley said. "Then you can get your offenses to be more and more intricate as time goes on, and then as you see what role [the kids will] fill best within that offense." 

As Berkeley assembles his team and their roles, there are two star seniors that he said he will be relying on: Jesse Yanik and Mateo Cruz. Yanik was a scoring machine last season, averaging 11.8 points per game with a season-high of 31 against Genesis Prep Academy.  

Berkeley said Yanik has been working on his shot throughout the offseason and should be one of the team's standouts this year. Cruz only spent half of the season with the team last season but proved to be just as effective a scorer as Yanik. 

"When he was playing and stuck with it, he was [scoring] like 20 points a game," Berkeley said of Cruz. "Really a solid athlete, bigger kid, shoots the ball well, can play down low. He kind of does everything for us, wherever you need him." 

Supporting those seniors will be a pair of sophomores, Kingston Hudson and Bode Scarlett. Berkeley said he expects Hudson to enter the starting lineup after adding to his vertical in the offseason, while Scarlett will likely fill in at the point guard slot. 

Scarlett is set to replace star guard Weston Cavin, the team's second-leading scorer from last year. Clark Fork's head coach said the sophomore is a brilliant basketball mind, which will serve him well as one of the team's primary ball handlers. 

Berkeley said he expects a few more sophomores back and around four freshmen, giving him around 12-13 players on the squad. 

"I'm definitely encouraged by the amount of freshmen that we have coming up," Berkeley said. "It is going to be a young crew... They're not all going to be seniors and juniors, but I think athletically we are going to put up a fight with everybody we play." 

Players to watch: Jesse Yanik, G, sr.; Mateo Cruz, sr., G/F. 

Schedule: 

- Nov. 30 @ Wallace – 7 p.m. 

- Dec. 2 @ Kootenai Classical Academy – 7 p.m. 

- Dec. 4 vs. Lakeside - 7 p.m. 

- Dec. 5 vs. Troy – 3:30 p.m. 

- Dec. 9 @ Mullan – 6 p.m. 

- Dec. 11 vs. Noxon – 7 p.m. 

- Dec. 12 vs. Kellogg JV – 12:30 p.m. 

- Dec. 18 vs. Kootenai – 7 p.m. 

- Jan. 9 @ Lakeside 

Jan. 11 vs. Gonzaga Prep - 6 p.m. 

Jan. 12 vs. Mullan – 6 p.m. 

Jan. 16 vs. Wallace – 12:30 p.m. 

Jan. 21 @ Kootenai – 7 p.m. 

Jan. 22 vs. Coeur du Christ – 6 p.m. 

Jan. 29 @ Noxon – 6 p.m. 

Jan. 30 @ Gonzaga Prep – 6 p.m. 

Feb. 4 @ Coeur du Christ – 7 p.m. 

Feb. 9 vs. Kootenai Classical Academy – 6 p.m. 

Feb. 16-18 @ District 1-2 Tournament