New York Mills to open season December 8 against Battle Lake

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Fresh off of one of their best seasons in recent memory, the New York Mills Eagles will have a new look on the court this season. Last year the Eagles finished with a record of 28-2 and were just minutes away from advancing to the state basketball tournament as they fell to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa by a score of 71-65 in the section championship game. 

Among the returning letter winners for NY Mills this season will be Sam Kopveiler, Brayden Ehnert, Braden Partlow, Will Oakes, Camden Seifert, Teagan Lausten, Hunter Holtti and Rowland Dykhoff. While the group of letter winners all have varsity experience, they will be asked to take on some new roles this season as they look to fill the void left by seniors Tate Olson, Breck Hensch, Jonah Johnson, Noah Noffsinger and Bryan Bohn who played a majority of the minutes for the Eagles last season. 

“We have a very athletic group of kids who just lack varsity experience. We’ll aim to use that athleticism to play fast-paced and put pressure on teams defensively,” said head coach Mike Baune. “I think our overall team defense and rebounding should be a strength for us. Our offense will look to find 3-5 guys that can average 8-12 points as we’ll focus on heavy ball movement and efficiency while limiting turnovers. If we can do those things I think we have a chance to have another very nice season and surprise some teams.”

Some of the underclassmen who the Eagles will be relying on this season will be Hunter Bosman, Braxton Ehnert and Finn Roder.

“Our motto for this season is ‘surprise,’” said Baune. “We think it’s going to be very fun since literally, nobody else knows anything about who’s going to be on the floor for us this year or some of the trickery we have up our sleeves schematically. The team is heavily embracing the underdog role and we just want to show people that basketball is still strong in New York Mills.”

Baune said some of the favorites in the conference this season will be Henning and Wadena-Deer Creek. In the section the favorites will be defending champion Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, Henning and Border West. 

As the team hits the court for the first time this week, Baune said he is looking forward to the team growing throughout the season as they look to rebuild from last seasons magical run. 

“I expect some growing pains early as our guys get accustomed to varsity basketball, but in the same regard, I expect a ton of growth and development as the season goes along,” said Baune, “On another note, our JV and C Squads have exceptional participation numbers which is very encouraging in our efforts to grow basketball in NYM.”

Baune will be joined on the bench this season by Zach Christenson on JV and Jordan Folkestad on C-squad.