TOWNSEND — Kell Schwers knew this was going to be the year.
“Me, personally, I was looking to come have a big year,” he said, “because last year I was injured with my hip, and I had a rough year. A letdown.”
The Big Timber point guard played through a labral tear in his hip last season, a big reason the Herders missed the Class B boys basketball state tournament for the second consecutive year. Then Schwers decided that was enough.
“I stayed positive and worked hard off the court — did physical therapy, lifted every day in the summer and got on the court a lot,” he said.
Basketball coach Dan Smart wasn’t the only one noticing.
“He’s a gym-rat kid,” Smart said. “He was in the gym all summer long. And even during football, he was sneaking in for an hour after football, which I don’t think made the football coaches real happy.”
That’s the key. This Big Timber senior class is loaded in seemingly every sport, but this is Schwers’ season.
“With the rest of our kids, we have a couple football players, a track star, a golf star, but basketball is his thing,” Smart said. “So he’s leading us right now, which is good. He should be.”
The Herders are 12-0, one of two undefeated teams left in Class B, and they’ve looked even more dominant since the calendar hit 2019, with six wins by more than 26 points per game.
“We stay calm,” said Schwers. “We know we’re good. We stay confident.”
But Smart his doing his best to keep it tempered.
“It’s tough to practice sometimes, because they’re so loose, so confident, but once they step on the court, it’s all business,” Smart said.
The Herders have a chance to wrap up the District 5B title this weekend, but they’re aiming much higher — as in, the first state title for the school since World War II.
And for Schwers, maybe more at the next level.
“No offers yet, but I want to play college basketball,” he said.
Smart thinks his leading scorer is capable.
“(Schwers), to me, is one of the best point guards that I’ve seen play in Class B,” he said. “So I think he can play there. They always say height matters, but he’s got good range on his shot, he can stroke it and he’s just confident.”
The best always are.
MTN Sports’ Richie Melby contributed to this report.
