• Central, East and Sheridan on the schedule.

The Braves basketball team will officially tip off their 2023-24 schedule this weekend as they travel to Fremont County and compete in the Strannigan Invitational hosted by Riverton High School. The Star Valley teams will be taking over Riverton Middle School for the majority of their games with Cheyenne Central up on the slate first for Thursday afternoon and evening.

SVI Media will not be able to stream Thursday.

On Friday, the teams will face Lander Valley in a 11:30 morning game. Star Valley defeated the Tigers in last year’s meeting, 51-39. The teams will see Cheyenne East with the varsity boys starting at 5:30 p.m. The two squads did not play last season.

Saturday’s games will have the program going up against Sheridan with a 4:30 p.m. varsity tip-time. The Braves defeated the Broncs in this same tournament matchup, 58-43.

According to new head coach, Matt Shumway, the players are ready to face someone other than teammates.

“We’ve had a good week of practice,” he said. “We’ve installed quite a few things to get ready for the season. We’ve been conditioning pretty hard. I feel good with how the week’s gone. They are tired of scrimmaging each other.”

Not only new to the job but new to the state and the 4A East, Shumway admits much of this weekend will be a learning experience but he expects the Braves to compete.

“Wer’e going to run into some good athletes for sure,” he added. “Central arguably brings back their three best players. East brings back one of their main players and Sheridan brings back three main guys. These teams have some experience. We’re on the opposite end of the experience of it so we’re implementing a lot of new stuff but we’re excited for the challenge and ready to get going.”

December will be a busy month with four games in Riverton followed by a home game against Sugar-Salem on December 14 prior to a three-game stretch at the Flaming Gorge Classic. Shumway says that those games and floor time will help the staff develop a consistent rotation.

“It’s going to take time,” he concluded. “It’s going to be several different types of lineups over these first few weeks. Not being able to do much in June, we’re doing some of that now. I anticipate January before we see any type of set rotation.”

Strannigan Invite

Thursday

Boys Soph. vs. Central 1:30 p.m.

Boys JV vs. Central 4:30 p.m.

Boys Varsity vs. Central 7:30 p.m.

Friday

Boys Soph. vs. East 11:30 a.m.

Boys JV vs. East 2:30 p.m.

Boys Varsity vs. East 5:30 p.m.

Saturday

Boys JV vs. Sheridan 1:30 p.m.

Boys Varsity vs. Sheridan 4:30 p.m.