Trenton girls basketball making history

Article copied from "The Williston Herald"

Written by Robert Brewer

The 2018-19 season was a memorable one for the Trenton Tigers girls basketball program. The team captured first place in the Tioga Tip Off Tourney, and also won District 15 and Region 8 championships.

For the first time since 2000, the Tigers earned a trip to the Class B state tournament, taking seventh place overall. It was just the fourth time in school history which the Tigers advanced to state.

According to Tigers head coach Bob Turcotte, this year's squad will be very experienced as last year's entire roster is still in tact with no players lost to graduation.  

"The girls have been to a state tournament now and have a feel for the top level of competition in North Dakota Class B basketball," Turcotte told the Williston Herald. "They have proven and know they can compete with the best teams in the state. This team takes pride in its defense and the girls play real hard defensively. They are a good group of coachable athletes who play with a competitive, hungry attitude."

Moving forward, Turcotte explains that in order to have another strong season of girls basketball, the Tigers cannot rest on their laurels from a year ago. Instead, Trenton must focus on improving each day in practice, knowing that each opponent they face this year will likely give their maximum effort on the court. 

"No one we play against this season will care about 2019, so there isn’t any reason to look back," Turcotte shares. "There will be very little talking about last year. We talk about today, and prepare for the next game. That’s what we control, we don’t worry about last year, we give our best each day in practice towards the goal of improving individually and collectively as a team throughout the season." 

On the floor, this year's Tigers team will feature four senior letter winners, including three-time all state selection Kaity Hove. Also a first-team North Dakota Class B selection as a junior last season, Turcotte expects Hove to improve even more as a senior. 

Also in the mix, juniors Alyssa and Alexa St. Pierre will be key starters for the Tigers. The pair of sisters are highly accomplished individual players as Alyssa has been an all-district selection three times during her career, and has an opportunity to surpass 1,000 career points early this year. As for Alexa, she was also an all-district selection a year ago, joining sophomore teammate Jacee Turcotte on the District 15 team as well.

With an abundance of talent at his disposal, the Tigers basketball coach believes a successful season will simply result in this year's Trenton's squad to reach their full potential as a unit. In order to achieve that goal, Turcotte wants his players not to settle for less than their maximum output.

"To me success is working with these kids daily, challenging them not to be satisfied with how good they are right now, and helping push them to find ways to get better all the time," the basketball mentor continues. "And I think when they do that, that is a measure of success."