The Star Valley Braves open up their 2025-26 schedule with an ambitious slate of games against out of state opponents over the next two weekends with tournament play in both Idaho Falls and Preston.
This week, Star Valley will start the season at the TitleOne Tip-Off Classic in Idaho Falls where they will play at the Mountain America Center. Their first game will be against Coeur d’Alene with a scheduled start time of 2 p.m. A win would put them into a semifinal game against either Sandpoint or Shelley on Friday at 5 p.m. A loss would have them playing at 11 a.m. on Friday against the loser of that same game.
It’s a tough opening weekend for a Star Valley team that brings back a lot of experience from last season.
“We’ve had a good couple weeks of practice so far,” stated head coach Matt Shumway, now in his third season. “We’re a little farther along than we have been. We’ve had some good hard practices and converting some guys to basketball shape.”
Shumway noted that while Star Valley’s first opponent, the Vikings, have just one returning varsity player, he is a D-I commit. Then there will be a slate of other options for the rest of the tournament based on results as to their next opponents. Next week’s tournament in Preston will also have quality teams such Kimberly, Thunder Ridge and Burley on their side of the bracket.
“It’s a good, tough slate before Christmas,” he said. “We have a lot of room to learn and grow.”
Helping in that growth is the return of three starters from last year’s team, including the Braves’ top two scorers in Cooper Lancaster and Dylan Shumway.
“It’s nice to have some experience,” he added. “We have five or six guys back who played significantly. Cooper was our leading scorer, Dylan was our second leading scorer and Will Linford is a third starter. Will has really grown and we’re excited where he is. Zack Thompson is back and played a lot. Roman Erickson is likely out until the new year. Then we have Lincoln Liddiard and Tayt Lawson who played a bit last year and also Mason Kleeman. It’s a very basketball-minded group and I’m excited about their understanding of the game.”
Coach Shumway noted a few things he’s looking for from his team.
“The main things I”m looking for on the offensive side of the floor is good ball movement,” he said. “We want to create that advantage and use that advance. Shot selection is important and not over dribble. We want the ball to pop and not stick. Defensively, we want all five guys on the same page. I think one of the things we need to be very focused on is rebounding. So we have to be really diligent in our rebounding effort.”
Not many teams have have the advantage of a team with so much returning potential.
“I’m excited about this group,” Shumway added. “Some of those kids have been seen a lot of high school basketball so we’re going to lean on them. We have a really good supporting cast. This early slate is tough and we want to test ourselves. We want to be ready for our region slate.”
Weekend Schedule
The Braves will be playing at the Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls as part of the TitleOne Tip-Off Classic. SVI Media will be streaming all of the weekend’s games on the exclusive platform of EastIdahoNews.com. There is no cost to view the streams at EIN but they hold the video rights to the tournament. As a true bracketed tournament, Star Valley will begin against Coeur d’Alene at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. The result of that game will determine their next two opponents on Friday and Saturday. Audio of the games will also be carried on Swift 98 and the SVI News app.
