In less than a week, the Belmond-Klemme girls basketball team will open its season.
This year’s Broncos roster returns four players who saw significant minutes last season: Kaylen Morris, Nevi McMurray, Kendra Huedepohl and Lila Swenson. The team also brings back several players expected to take on larger roles, including Avery Boeshart and Lily Pigman.
Collectively, the group will look to replace Quinn Gabrielson and Adasyn Lamb, who graduated in the offseason and accounted for about 700 of the team’s points.
Head Coach James Severson says his team’s offseason work has helped prepare them for the challenge of replacing that production.
“Our seniors, Kendra Huedepohl, Kaylen Morris, they’ve been in the gym, they’ve been working on just general basketball fundamentals and skills,” says Severson. “And, uh you know, I think some of that’s going to maybe surprise some people. Our two shooters, Nevi McMurray, she’ll be a junior this year. And then Avery Boeshart will be a sophomore for us this year. And I think those two are gonna surprise some people. And so we hope that they can find a groove from the outside and knock down some shots for us.”
As this year’s roster sees new faces in new roles, Severson expects some growing pains but believes communication will be key.
“We are bringing back zero starters from last year,” says Severson. “And so it’s going to be tough for us to be heavy on the gas all the time. There’s going to be a lot of conversations, a lot of like, ‘Hey, you saw this, what can we do?’ A lot of back-and-forth, a lot of encouragement. So that’s kind of our goal of what we’re going to do and how we’re going to approach the girls this year.”
The Broncos’ first game of the season is Nov. 24 when they host North Butler. Tipoff is 7:30 p.m.
The full interview with Head Coach James Severson is below;
