The Bulldogs had a slightly above average season in its '19-20 campaign, with a 12-11 overall record and finishing 9-6 in Class B Region 7. However, the looks to add on to its success in the upcoming season.
The Bulldogs are slated to finish fifth in region 7, and despite the late start due to the pandemic, head coach Jaden Schoch has confidence that his team will meet that standing and could even see his team potentially playing in the semifinals of the Class B Region 7 tournament at the end of February.
"I think that we’ve had two really good weeks of practice," Schoch said. "(The players) have worked hard, we’ve done a lot of shooting and a lot of up and down work and they’ve kind of started to gel as a team and learn some of their teammates tendencies and strengths and what they can do."
The Bulldogs will look to be led by returning starters 5-foot-11-inch sophomore Ellie Powell and 5-foot-8-ich sophomore guard Bailey Peterson. Both athletes played a strong role in the Bulldogs' success last season and will look to continue that going into the upcoming season.
Bowman County will also see strong minutes from juniors Andrea Rodakowski, Alison Hoff, Madeline Stafford and Jayda Miller.
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Senior Jocelyn Kulseth will be looked upon to also make key contributions to the team throughout the season.
"I’m really looking forward to watching her progress and her making an impact on our team and see what she can do when she gets the time that she’s earned," Walker said.
While the Bulldogs will be viewed as being more of a younger team with having only one senior, the Bulldogs will be primarily focused on making progress throughout the season and take everything it has learned into the regional tournament.
" We want to take it just one game at a time," he said. "Our motto this year was to get better every day and have some progress in some form or another. We just want to progress as the season goes. We feel like we have a good base we’re pretty inexperienced as far as playing varsity minutes and playing together but we just want to progress and play hard."
Along with having a strong team chemistry, the Bulldogs will be bringing a lot of height onto the court which may be difficult for its opposition.
"Years past we’ve had some tall girls and kind of had decent sized post and then some small quick guards which worked awesome," Walker said. "But this year we’re kind of long all the way around so that we can change our defense around a little bit and move players around and try to get some mismatches here and there."
Based on the team's practices and how the team has shaped itself in the handful of practices it has had since the beginning of the season, Walker is looking forward to seeing his young team in action.
"I’m just ready to watch them play and get up and down the floor and run," he said. "It seems like this group really knows how to move the ball well and in practice it’s sometimes hard to get a really good grasp until you’ve played some other opponents but in practice they’ve been moving the ball very quickly, driving it and making plays off of actions that you don’t really teach. They just kind of read and make the play and I’m really looking forward to watching that."
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Bowman County is scheduled to begin its season on Tuesday at home against the Beulah Miners at 7 p.m.
