Great Falls boys’ basketball begins quest for a second-straight state championship
The Great Falls Red Devils are hard at work every day as they prepare to defend their state title in Class 1A.
Alex Fair, who is in his second year as head coach, knows how difficult it’ll be to repeat because every team in the state will be looking to give its best effort against his team.
“We have talked about that at practice,” the head coach said. “We are going from hunting for a state title to being hunted. The situation is very different for us this time around.”
In addition to being hunted, the Red Devils will have to deal with the loss of five players from last year, including an all-time great forward in Kelton Talford, who is now playing basketball at Winthrop. All five figured prominently in the success they enjoyed on the way to a perfect region record of 8-0 and a 27-3 overall mark.
Great Falls has four seniors on this year’s 12-player roster, and they are being counted on for leadership on and off the floor.
“I have been very pleased with the way they have taken charge this year,” said Fair, who’d known many of the Great Falls players on last year’s team since they were really young. “They looked at last year’s senior class and the way that they led. A lot of that rubbed off on them.”
K. J. Abrams, DeShawn Johnson, Christian Blake and Eddie Roach are the seniors on this year’s edition of the Red Devils.
That quartet is getting plenty of help from a solid junior class. Foxx Moore, Nywun Cloud, Ty Coleman, Will Manning and Xavier Brown comprise that talented group.
The quest for repeating as champions
The virus slowed things down for everybody, but Fair has a lot of other new challenges he will face in his second year: The region is likely going to be tougher than it was last year, and the run to the state title will also be more difficult — not to mention that Great Falls has scheduled several non-region games against teams in higher classifications (kind of like the schedule the Red Devils inherited last year).
“We only have three other teams in the region this season. Lewisville, CA Johnson, and McBee are in the region, and they are all capable of winning it,” Fair said. “Statewide, there are a lot of teams that were 2A last year that dropped down to 1A. It is a real challenge.”
But the pride and legacies of Great Falls teams of the past remain: Last year’s team motto was, “We before me.” This year’s team motto is, “We will be ready.”
“These players grew up watching Great Falls play in the past,” added Fair. “It is now their turn to be on the floor. They are determined, and they are working hard to get better every day and make it happen.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 7:00 AM.