Sports

Mix of experience, youth to drive BHS

By Matthew Semisch

04/07/2015

Ten months ago, Bottineau High was well-represented at the 2014 North Dakota state high school track and field meet.

A total of 10 state qualifiers from the school descended upon the MDU Resources Community Bowl in Bismarck last May, and BHS enjoyed success at the meet. Harrison Aide won his fourth consecutive state pole vault title, and Ethan Kerslake finished third in the boys’ state 400 meter dash final.

A new meet season begins next week, though, when Bottineau takes part in the Hazen Invitational on April 14 and the Rugby Invitational two days later. 

The 2015 state meet is almost two months away. At this point in the season, however, BHS head coach David Hoff is excited to see what’s in store for his boys’ and girls’ teams.

He has large groups to work with this spring. Sixty-six BHS athletes went out for track and field this year, and Hoff feels he has good balance between 10 seniors and the younger members.

“We have a nice group of returning kids,” Hoff said, “and you talk about Ethan Kerslake probably being our top returner and he anchors a lot of our relay teams, but there are also some talented guys around him in the relays, and there’s a handful of older girls, too, with a lot of experience. 

“I don’t know if we have a ton of depth in terms of experience top to bottom, but we did get more kids this year and have a nice turnout on the high school side of a little under 30 and 66 kids (grades) seven through 12.”

For now, what Hoff and his coaching staff have to work with is something of an unknown quantity. The North Dakota weather has largely kept BHS’s practice sessions indoors.

Hoff has seen enough already, though, to know that his group is ready for next week’s meets.

“It’s been all right because we’ve gotten outside more already than we had at this point in the season the past few years,” Hoff said, “and we will again next week, too, even though it’s supposed to be cooler, but it’s the way it always is. 

“You think you’re ready to go outside and stay out there, and then Mother Nature throws you a curve and you’re back in the gym, but we wanted to get enough practices in that we’d be ready to go to meets in early April, and we’re there now.”

Hoff views next week’s events in Hazen and Rugby as ways for him and his staff to get a feel for where BHS is next to its North Central Region rivals.

“Those first couple of meets are kind of baseline meets for us to see where kids are and give them early opportunities to get out and see what they can do,” he said. “They get a time or whatever it is and then they can work on getting better.”

One event many BHS fans’ eyes will be on throughout the season is the pole vault. Aide’s title last spring gave Bottineau a Class B state pole vault champion for the 13th year in a row.

It’s tough to tell at this point who might be heir apparents there, but Hoff was encouraged last year by the development of current freshman Riley Gallagher.

“We’ve got a kid in Riley Gallagher who really started to figure that event out near the end of last year in the final two or three meets of the season,” Hoff said, “and for him that could be an event where he just really takes off with it.

“He’s a kid that can give us some depth in some of our running events, as well. A really good all-around athlete.”

Four female BHS seniors will help lead the Stars this season. Stephanie Brenden, Maria Diepolder, Madison Klebe and Taisyn St. Claire are all entering their final BHS sports season.

Kerslake, Cody Allard, Alex Bristol, Chris LaFromboise, Braden Pewe and Skyler Underhill make up the group of seniors on the boys’ side.

The 2015 state meet will take place May 22-23 in Bismarck.