Charleston – Decades have passed since Montcalm last made the state tournament – nearly five of them to be exact.
That streak comes to an end Thursday evening when the Generals, winners of a Region 3 co-final over Webster County, take the floor of the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center against Class A No. 1 and defending state champion Tug Valley at 5:30 p.m.
It’ll mark the first time Montcalm has made the state tournament since it finished state runner-up in 1978, meaning the program is light on experience.
“It’s been brand new,” Montcalm head coach Adam Havens said. “Fortunately we’ve leaned on the experience of people in our region and people in our area. We were able to practice and get in the gym at the Brushfork Armory and have a couple of practices there. And then just leaning on the experienced people has been the main thing and staying true to ourselves and doing what we do.”
One of the figures the Generals have leaned on is Randy Jennings, a member of that 1978 team who earned all-tournament honors. Havens credits him for helping the team acclimate to what it anticipates seeing.
“We’ve had crazy amount of support, it’s been a blessing really,” Havens said. “Randy Jennings, who is our school’s leading scorer and was a leader on that state runner-up team, has bene a huge help. His presence alone has been amazing. He’s provided pointers. People in our community have reached out with pointers about playing in the (Coliseum) and different things like that.”
While the absence has been lengthy, there was always the belief this could be a special year for the Generals. Regional realignment and reclassification moved several team around, bumping perennial contender James Monroe up a class, leaving a spot up for grabs. Havens’ group believed early it was theirs for the taking.
“We spent most of the year with that mindset and that as our goal,” Havens said. “Late in the year as we continued to improve and we continued to win game sin our region we just stayed true to ourselves and kept it going and we were able to get here.”
The Generals’ top player is also their only senior in Tristen Cline, a player who led the team with 19 points in its win over Webster County in the regional round. He’ll be tasked with helping lead a squad heading into a Panther den.
Ahead of Montcalm is the monumental task of toppling a Tug Valley team that’s crushed teams in every classification including Class AA powers Logan, Charleston Catholic and Williamstown.
“They’re very well-coached, a very disciplined team,” Havens said. “Very experienced team and they’re a team that can beat you a lot of different ways. They can get out and run and shoot the ball extremely well. It’s hard to turn them over, hard to slow them down. They’re the team that, clearly on film looks like the favorite to win a state championship.”
There’s a path to a Montcalm upset and Havens has laid it out, but it starts with taking care of the basketball and getting comfortable early. The Generals will need to dictate the terms all evening.
“We definitely have to limit our turnovers forts and foremost,” Havens said. “We have to control the tempo. If we can among to control the tempo and keep the game at the pace that we like will give us the best chance and we have to score the basketball. We shoot pretty decent from the perimeter and as long as we can continue that trend – I think we shot 60 percent from 3 in the regional final – we’ll give ourselves a shot.”
