• Basketball at home on Friday and Saturday

As the last few days of the Christmas break come to a close for LCSD No. 2, the athletes for basketball and wrestling will be back in action this weekend both home and away. Here’s a look at what to expect as the teams flip the calendar to 2025.

Boys Wrestling: On their last outing before Christmas, the Braves placed second as a team at the Viewmont Invite. This weekend they will be at the Richardson Memorial at Box Elder High School, the only team to finish in front of them on their last trip to the Beehive state. Coach Eddie Clark commented on the effort.

“We had kids go and compete hard and put five in the finals,” he said. “It’s Christmas so we had some gone early but it was good. We had a good two days and four champions. Our JV wrestled well and got a lot of matches.”

This week, the host school will be just one of many bigger and storied programs on the slate.

“They will be tough, Viewmont will be tough, Morgan will be there,” Clark added. “There are a few others that will be highly competitive. It will be fun and everybody will get pushed.”

Getting back into the swing of things after the holidays can be challenging.

“Christmas is tough, we practice as much as we can,” Clark added. “The big thing is that we work on the stuff we haven’t put into the system yet. We try and refine those skills and find where we are at. Every weekend is about trying to find what we need to work on and improve.

We’re young so a lot of these guys are stepping in the varsity lineup for the first time so they need matches. We’ve also had some guys missing some time and they will slide into the Bear Lake meet so they are in situations they are ready for. I’m excited about this team and they are working hard.”

Due to contractual obligations between Box Elder High School and Flowrestling, SVI Media will not be able to provide boys wrestling coverage. There will be a link to help those interested in finding the subscription information at svinews.com.

Boys Basketball: After dropping a trio of games at the Preston Indian Classic, the Braves will be at home this Friday night for a 6 p.m. start time against Mountain Crest before traveling for a Saturday afternoon road game at Sky View. Coach Matt Shumway reflected on where the team stands.

“It was a tough weekend,” he said of the Preston outing. “We played some pretty good teams and we wish our record was a little better but we want to get better. When you play teams like that they exploit things that you need to improve so it’s a good learning opportunity for us. But we had some lapses and it’s hard to come back. We have to get better at rebounding and defense and generate some more points.”

This weekend promises to see two more very competitive programs as the Braves will only have these two outings before another two-weekend layoff prior to conference play.

“Two more tough games this weekend,” Shumway said. “The thing you find with some of these bigger Utah schools is you might have some players who play year-round. Record-wise they are about .5000 but they’ve played some big schools too. We’ll have to play hard and defend to give ourselves a chance.”

SVI Media will be covering the Braves at home on Friday night and on the road Saturday afternoon. Game times have changed from the original schedule.

Girls Basketball: The Lady Braves picked up their first win and nearly knocked off the Laramie Plainsmen last weekend at the Flaming Gorge Classic as they prepare for this weekend’s game.

“It was a good weekend,” replied head coach Kade Erickson. “We averaged 42 points per game which is good for us even though we lost a couple of them. Our offense was executing better. Free throws were huge for us and we shot 22 of them and hit 60-percent. They were motived and we need to tighten up our defense a bit. We were missing Emily [Dana]. She’s a pivotal player for us. We also learned we need have to have better first-quarters. That has killed us so if we can have a better start it gives us a better opportunity to compete the whole game.”

The Lady Braves will be on the road on Friday with a scheduled 7 p.m. start time against Mountain Crest before returning home to play their first home game against Preston on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

“Mountain Crest is solid,” Erickson said. “I’ve watched some film. They push the ball well and drive to the rim and have some good rebounders. I think we match up okay with them and we need to be consistent. Preston is similar to us so that might be a good battle for us to be at home and hopefully we can come away with a win.”

Girls Wrestling: Comments from Coach Waldron were not able to be obtained before this week’s print deadline. The Lady Braves will be back in action on Saturday with some athletes headed to Bear Lake and others to Mountain Crest. SVI Media is anticipating coverage of Lady Braves Wrestling this weekend at the Mountain Crest tournament with matches scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.