The Chinook Sugarbeeter girls basketball team improved dramatically a season ago. This years squad returns a solid core that have another years experience under their belt and a hunger to achieve more.

The Sugarbeeters are once again under the direction of Head Coach Mike Jones. Jones has done a solid job in building the program back since he took over as top dog in 2018. Assisting him on the bench this season will be Mike Seymour and Tami Schoen.

The 'Beeters will be a young team on paper, but this years team got a ton of experience a season ago and will look to build on that. Allison Powell is the lone senior on the roster. Powell will provide the veteran leadership the team needs both on and off the court.

Juniors out this season include Torin Cecrle, Bree Swanson, and Anna Terry. Sophomores returning for their second season are Britton Elliot, Mya Berreth, Teagan Richman, Hallie Neibauer and Jenna Liddle.

Freshman getting their first taste if high school ball Alexus Seymour, Sami Malsam, Addison Olsen, Jeni Mord, Gracie Skoyen and Hannah Schoen.

Neibauer returns as a District 9C All-Conference award winner for the 'Beeters. Cecrle, Terry, Powell, Swanson, Elliot, Berreth, Richman and Liddle were all letterman a season ago.

The start of any season hopefully begins with a lot of energy, positive spirit and high hopes and after a few weeks of practice coaches can get a pretty good feel for where their team is at. "Practice has been great so far. Our intensity and competitive spirit has been great in practice. We have also had an increased motivation to get better in all aspects of our game from fundamentals/conditioning to our press offense/ Transition," said Jones.

Any team looking to put together a season to remember needs strong leadership, a presence on and off the court to be successful and reach their goals, "We have a pretty close team and we are continually putting an emphasis on leadership and our core values. We have tremendous buy-in from our girls and we preach that leadership and come from anywhere. Right now I expect a mix of upper and underclassmen to take some different leadership roles," commented Jones.

On paper the 'Beeter girls appear to be a young team, to some a more accurate description may be a young team with a lot of experience. How does Coach Jones see his team, "We are still a fairly young team, but our group is extremely competitive. I know that these girls have some competitive fire in them. We want to get better everyday in all aspects and play our best basketball in February."

For any young team the task is to get them up to speed as quick as possible so that they can be asked to contribute when needed. Last year saw big contributions come from the 'Beeter underclassmen and Jones expects it that to continue, "We have 11 underclassmen on the team this year. We had to rely on some of them last year and again we will have to rely on the underclassmen and will also need a couple more to step up and provide some things for us in games."

Another big change this year comes on the sidelines as long time boys Head Coach Mike Seymour stepped down to become Jones's assistant with the girls program.

Seymour became the 'Beeter boys programs winningest coach in his 10 years on the sideline and Jones is thrilled to have him on board, "(Having Mike) is extremely helpful because of the amount of knowledge and experience he has. His experience is going to make us better as a team and also as a program. We are able to bounce new ideas around all the time to each other." Jones added, "I think having him on staff helps all aspects of our program, and not just getting some install in faster. All of us coaches are able to see different things that are happening in practice and on the floor. It is amazing because we are able to see different things and help our players who may learn differently and they benefit from the amount of coaching experience we have collectively on the floor at all times.

The Sugarbeeters will begin their 2021-22 season this Thursday in Shelby at the Coyotes preseason tip off tournament. The girls will play Cut Bank at 4:30 p.m. Saturday the girls will take on the Belt Huskies first thing in the morning with a 9:00 a.m. start time.

The Sugarbeeters will open District 9C play on the road Friday, December 17 against the Big Sandy Pioneers. Their home opener will be the following day, Saturday, December 18 as they welcome the Box Elder Bears to town. Both games are set to tip off at 6 p.m.

The 'Beeters will host conference games against Hays/Lodge Pole (12/21), Turner (1/8), North Star (1/14), Big Sandy (1/20), Chester/J-I (1/28) and Fort Benton (2/12).

Chinook will play two non-conference games against Harlem. The first contest will take place on Friday, January 7 in Harlem. The Lady Cats will visit Chinook on Friday, February 4.

The District 9C Tournament will once again take place in Havre at the Blue Pony Gymnasium. The tournament will run from February 16-19. The top three teams will advance to the Northern C Divisional in Great Falls, February 23-26 at the Four Seasons Arena. The top two teams will then advance to the State Class C Boys & Girls State Tournament in Bozeman, March 9-12.