Vals looking to defend title, extend 29-game winning streak

Last season was one for the ages for the Bigfork Valkyries basketball squad. Not only did the team win its first-ever state title, it did so in dominant fashion going a perfect 26-0.

This season, the Vals will be facing a new learning curve as they make the jump to Class A, but head coach Cortnee Gunlock still expects her team to be in the mix and the end of the year.

“We are excited to play new teams, but we realize this will be a different year than last year,” she said. “We will see closer games, which I think will be good for us. We have four players coming back who have a good amount of varsity experience, so we feel that we should be able to compete pretty well.”

While the team lost three core seniors in Scout Nadeau, Maddi Chappuis and Ellie Jordt from last year’s state title team, they also return All-State selections Braeden and Paeten Gunlock.

“The three seniors we lost from last year brought a ton of leadership to the team, so now we have to see who is going to be able to step up and fill those roles,” Cortnee Gunlock said. “We will be young, but experienced.”

The team’s seasoned leadership should help, but coach Gunlock admits this year has already been different from the past.

“We have already had to pull back on practice a bit compared to last year. We had such a seasoned team last year that we were able to just hit the ground running. With some younger players this year, we are really having to take a step back, slow things down and get these kids used to what we want to do,” she said. “We are not expecting to have the same season we had last year.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Valkyries as the season gets underway is a lack of depth on its bench, which will lead to a more conservative approach to defense through the beginning of the year.

“The teams in Class A have deeper rosters and we will have to keep our core group out of foul trouble and on the court as much as possible, but also get the younger players as much experience as possible when opportunities present themselves,” coach Gunlock said. “Size will also be an issue for us in Class A. We are not as big as we were last year, and that is going to be an adjustment. Class A will have us facing some bigger and taller players than we did last year and we will have to get used to that.”

Bigfork’s schedule allows the team little to no time to make adjustments as the Valkyries open the season at the Frenchtown Tip-Off Tournament next Friday, where they will face a pair of State A Tournament teams from a year ago in Frenchtown and Dillon.

The Vals open the season against a Frenchtown Lady Broncs team that won the Western A title last season before going 1-2 at the state tourney.

Saturday night’s matchup sees the Valkyries take on Dillon and a Lady Beavers team that finished third in Western A last season before dropping a pair of games at the state tourney.

The Vals will face another early-season test the following weekend as they travel to Lewistown to take on Billings Central in the East/West A Tip-Off at Fergus High School.

Billings Central finished third in the east, but advanced to the State A semifinal before settling for fourth at the state tourney.

“We will know after the first couple of weeks where we stand in Class A and what we will need to work on,” Cortnee Gunlock said about the team’s early schedule.

Whatever the outcome of those games, coach Gunlock has a plan for the remainder of the season.

“We want to get more fundamentally sound and get the younger players some experience, which will be a challenge,” she said. “I feel like we are going to have some losses, which is fine, but my goal is for us to get better and better so we can be where we want to be at the end of the season.