GREAT FALLS — On Wednesday, the Frontier Conference held its annual virtual media day for its women's basketball programs. It's a new era in the conference, with six new teams joining from either the former North Star Athletic Association or making the jump up from junior college status.
Lots of success has been seen out of the Frontier in recent years, most notably with Providence's run to the 2024 NAIA national championship game. The semifinal game that year pinned the Argos up against fellow Frontier team Carroll College.
Providence has also won the conference tournament in each of the past two seasons.
Still, the Argos have seen change within their program over the offseason. A few key pieces which attributed to their recent success moved on, whether through graduation or transfer, but coach Bill Himmelberg said during Wednesday's call that his team will carry on well with newer faces making an impact.
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"We're excited for (the returning players) and the new freshmen we brought in," Himmelberg said. "These girls are going to bring them along and show them the Argo way and show them how we do things and show them the standards we hold ourselves to."
Taking home last year's regular season conference title was Rocky Mountain College. Coach Wes Keller said he's got a core he's confident in, especially with sophomores Isabelle Heggem and Paige Wasson leading the way.
"I'm excited to see what (Heggem and Wasson) do — a lot of what we do is going to go through these two," Keller said. "I definitely think they're both more than capable of handling (big roles)."
Carroll College has produced solid teams in prior years as well, with this past season being the first time in eight years that the program did not eclipsed 20 wins, coach Rachelle Sayers said.
Senior Meagan Karstetter was a part of Carroll's 2024 final four run.
"With all that success that we've experienced we can really just be those leaders that we had with this new team," Karstetter said. "Kind of hold them to a higher standard, build our chemistry and just expect great things from this new team."
A changing of the guard has taken place in Dillon, as former Montana Western football and basketball alum Ryan Sullivan was named the new coach for the Bulldogs. This is Sullivan's first stint as a collegiate head coach.
"Learning a lot, you know, our mindset is just trying to get better," Sullivan said. "Trying to get to know the girls better and just focus on competing every single day."
One of the six newcomers to the conference, Dakota State (S.D.), went 25-5 last season. The Trojans earned a No. 4 seed in the national tournament, won the North Star outright and beat Montana Tech in the first round of the postseason.
Dakota State coach David Moe expressed excitement for what's to come now being in the Frontier.
"If you don't show up you could obviously take a loss," Moe said. "And it's just going to be a lot of fun to be able to compete against high quality teams, great coaches, great programs."
