How they did last year: Last season, four of these teams made it to the state tournament. That is a little misleading since both Madison and Shelley are new to the conference this season. Hillcrest finished third in the state in the 4A, first beating Skyview, losing to Twin Falls and then beating Bishop Kelly. Rigby also made the tournament but lost their first two games. Shelley won the 3A classification third place game while Madison lost in the third place game at the 5A level.
This season: be ready for a battle every night. With six teams in the conference but only 1.5 spots available at state, every game will matter. This is definitely one of the toughest conferences in the state amongst all classifications, especially when only 1 team is guaranteed to move on to the big dance. Players that you should keep an eye on include Ryker Pierce (Madison), McKay Cannon (Shelley), Jared Stutzman (Bonneville) and Kamen McCollough (Rigby).
*Blackfoot – I don’t know much about Blackfoot. It looks like they graduated seven seniors but will likely have back current seniors Collin Rockwood, Sam Cannon and Beau Hoskins.
*Bonneville – The Bees will be seeking a trip back to the state tournament after having last been there in 2008. They will bring in several newcomers this year but with a strong summer, the youngsters have started playing more like veterans. Among those is 6’5 freshman Jared Stutzman. Stutzman is considered one of the best freshman in the state and is starting to develop a perimeter game that has several Division I schools taking an early interest.
*Hillcrest – The third place finishing Knights will try and take the next step this year. They lost by four in the semi-finals at state but behind seniors Matt Hansen and Tyler Cunningham they will see if they can make it all the way to the finals. They may also bring up three sophomores from their JV team which means the future for Hillcrest could be very exciting.
*Madison – Last year at the 5A level, the Bobcats went to the state third place game. This year they lose Josh Fuller (Utah) who was a first team all state selection and the 2009 Gatorade Player of the Year. But they have several capable bodies ready to jump into his place. Three are returning starters including Kyle Blanchard (5’11 senior), Jason Luthy(5’8 senior) and Ryker Pierce (6’1 junior). Pierce averaged nearly 14 points and 6 rebounds during the state tournament, when most of the attention was on Fuller. It will be interesting to see how he responds this year when more of the focus is on him. Expect clockwork like execution from Coach Bill Hawkins’ team and a competitive and dangerous team out of the gates.
*Rigby – The Trojans bring back two players (Bo Briggs, 5’10 senior and Kamen McCullough, 5’10 junior) from last year’s team that saw significant time at the state tournament. They don’t look big on paper but they appear to have several seniors that that will be stepping up to make an impact.
Shelley – The Russets will be led by sophomore point guard McKay Cannon. Head Coach Dave Hadley has said that Cannon has the best court vision of any player he’s coached, which is high praise considering he had Tanner Higham just a few years ago. Cannon, just like Higham, plays for Idaho Select in the offseason. Chad Leckington is another sophomore that will make an impact for Shelley. Despite moving up a classification, Coach Hadley is adamant that his team doesn’t use that as an excuse for poor play. They still expect to win at this level. They are young but the new guys will have to mature in a hurry. Coach Hadley feels that if his team can shoot the ball as they are capable they will be able to stretch the defense and get their bigs some better looks.
*I was not able to make contact with the head coaches that have an asterisk by their team’s name