Third coach was a charm, struggle for seniors

By the time most student-athletes are seniors they have ran more miles in practice than they can count, learned more plays than they care to remember and sat through more motivational speeches than they can shake a stick at, but they buy into the program for one more year because they know it is their last chance to accomplish their goals.

However, that buy-in came with some pretty high stakes for Lael Richmond and Keenan Evans as they entrusted their final high school basketball season to their third coach in four years – Paul La Mott.

"It was hard taking him seriously because we have had coaches in the past tell us similar things to what he did," Richmond said. "It was hard to believe him that it was going to be different this time."

The first thing that led the boys to give him a chance was his stature.

"It's easier to work hard when you have a 6-6 250 pound coach," Evans said. "It makes you feel a little more intimidated and you pay attention and focus better. It was good because we got stuff done and everyone listened. They were all more tuned in."

Beyond his ability to grab their attention sheerly by his presence, La Mott gained the boys confidence with his knowledge of the game.

"He's not just some Godzilla guy," Richmond said. "We all knew he knew what he was talking about and we all respected him."

One of the things that really impressed the boys was that La Mott analyzed each player's abilities and built an offense around their strengths.

"We are complete now," Richmond said. "We had the players. We had the support of the community of Bigfork. We all believed that we could be good going into this year. But when coach La Mott got the job that was the final piece. It all came together. This just shows what can happen when you have good players and a good coached."

In July the boys got their first taste of what life with La Mott as their coach would be like when he held a camp for potential players.

"It was a lot of running and a lot of work," Richmond said. "But coach La Mott told us that if we followed what he told us to do, that we would get to the next level of play. I don't know what it was, but we all just believed him. It was pretty intense at first."

Evans was in Washington, D.C., visiting his dad last summer so he didn't attend the camp, but Richmond, as well as junior teammate Travis Knoll, called him after the first day of the camp to report on how things were going with the new coach.

"They said it wasn't even like an open gym that it was more like boot camp," Evans said. "I was kind of happy to hear that we had a more intense coach, because we haven't had that really the last three years. I was a little afraid that we were just going to spend every practice doing conditioning."

At first, conditioning was the focus of their practices, and so was discipline. From the first day of tryouts, La Mott made it clear that he had high expectations for the boys on his team on the court, in the classroom and in the community.

"The discipline in the program is good," Evans said. "I understand what he says about wanting us to not act up and behave in class. We only did burners (running the bleachers' three times because eventually everyone stopped goofing around and getting in trouble."

Although some parents and community members felt that La Mott's disciplinary tactics and highly physically demanding practices were overkill, the two seniors were in agreement that the team benefited from it.

"The discipline is important because he wants to get across to the kids that school comes before basketball," Richmond said. "The intense workouts were important because he knew that we hadn't had a winning season in a long time so we had to learn to have a winning mentality.

Winning was just was this year's Vikings did as they finished the season with a 10-0 record in regular season district play and an 18-5 overall record, which is a big improvement from last year's season in which the team was 1-9 in conference and 3-15 overall.

"I'm glad this is how my basketball career is ending," Richmond said.

In fact, the boys actually wish that it wasn't ending at all and that they had more time in the new program.

"I kind of wish I was a freshman so I could stay in this basketball program for another three years," Evans said. "My little brother is going to be a freshman next year and I'm really glad that he will have a chance to be coached by La Mott."

Besides a new found level of conditioning, one of the biggest things La Mott gave his team was confidence, which they were lacking.

"This year, there weren't any games that we didn't step out onto the court at the beginning of the game knowing that we could win," Richmond said. "That's how I know how far I've come as a player. Last year we would go onto the court thinking we'll probably lose or might win, but probably not. But this year we knew that we could beat anybody if we just played our game.

This confidence the boys had was built by the improvements they saw in themselves and in their teammates as a result of following what La Mott told them to do.

"Basically anything he said, even if in the back of my head I wasn't sure it was right, I listened, even if it was little things, like keeping our arms up on defense," Richmond said. "We've always had our arms down and this year we got so many steals that way."

With a district championship, a perfect district record in the regular season and five players on the All-Conference list, it is easy for the boys to look back on the season and say that all the hard work was worth it, but it wasn't always that way.

"During open gym tryouts, I wanted to quit," Richmond said. "I thought, 'I didn't sign up for the Marines. I wanted to play basketball.' It all paid off for us though when we played those first two games at the Tip-Off Tournament and beat the first team by 30 and the second team by 18. We didn't feel like we had gotten any better and then we got those wins."

Evans and Richmond both said that it was easier to put in the work because they all did it as a team. The boys on this year's team got along much better than those teams in previous years, according to the seniors.

"If you like each other, it's easier to play together and it makes you want to go to practice because you want to spend time together," Evans said.

Although some people have said that it was not the players' hard work or a new coach that brought the Vikings a successful season, but rather just the change from Class A to Class B, the boys disagree.

"People that say that never saw us play this summer and they have not seen how far we have come," Richmond said. "It is so new to us to have a coach that is so knowledgeable and cares so much."

The boys believe that the hard work that this year's team did has also laid the ground work for future seasons.

"It will continue to help in years to come if everyone keeps buying into it," Evans said. "I hope he (La Mott) gets to keep coaching for awhile and that maybe a few more kids will want to come to Bigfork to play. He'll definitely get the best out of the players."