The Havre girls’ basketball season came to an end at state in Butte two weekends ago. This youthful team made it all the way to a semifinal before bowing out to eventual champion Billings Central Catholic. Head coach Dustin Kraske told New Media Broadcasters he would call his team’s season a success despite not reaching the mountain top.
“I thought our kids played well,” Kraske said. “(At) state, there were a lot of really good teams (and) we were one of them.”
“Playing the state semifinals is not as easy task,” Kraske continued. “Things didn’t go our way as far as basketball goes, but (the) overall season was excellent.”
“(I’m) very pleased and appreciated the kids’ efforts,” Kraske said. “We’ll look forward to get a little better for the Ponies.”
The question that has been asked to all the coaches whose basketball season’s came to an end was how the 2023-24 season will be talked about in the coming years. Kraske said from the day the season started to winning a divisional championship to having this run come to an end will ultimately resemble a team that can be looked back on as a squad that brought Havre together.
“Great team, obviously,” Kraske said. “Easy to coach. Wanted to get better every day.”
“There was a lot of growing up during the season that I really appreciated,” Kraske continued. “I thought our kids made the commitment to understand that we’ve got to get better with basketball every day (and come) to practice ready to go.”
“I guess it’ll just be a fond memory of another wonderful team that represented our school and community well,” Kraske said.
