Entering his eighth season as head coach, Josh Ihrke expects his team to push the tempo of the game more than they have done in recent years.

“We will be a young team and we will look to increase our pace of play,” says Ihrke, who notes that his team is guard heavy and lacks overall height.  “Our kids are very strong and athletic so we will try and utilize our strengths.”

Speaking to his team’s historical lack of height, Ihrke laughs and jokes that there seems to be a lot of six foot tall “linebacker” dads in Becker.

“We just don’t get the height like some of the other teams in the area,” says Ihrke.

The Bulldogs return four letter winners from a year ago, meaning that many of the impactful minutes will be going to players seeing their first varsity action.  Nick Knute, Eric Seavert and Brady Paumen will be looked upon early to lead the team with their experience from a year ago.

There are also a few injuries the team will need to overcome.

Carter Callahan saw plenty of action last year on the court, and he is expected back from a football injury some time in February. Meanwhile, transfer Malachai Cotton was injured in practice and will most likely miss the season.

Ihrke says it is possible the team might start just one senior, while several sophomores are expected to be in the mix for having their names called during introductions.

“We are going to be very inexperienced early, but the positive side is that it has been very competitive in practice and the guys are competing hard for playing time,” says Ihrke.  “We will play with a team concept and any number of the guys are capable of putting up 15-20 points on any given night.”

Ihrke mentioned several names as being in the mix to contribute minutes for the team, including Alex Weiss, Hayden Harmoning, Landon Goebel, Ryan Bengtson and Nick Berglund.

Although the season start has been delayed and many of the summer and fall leagues were shortened, the coach does see a positive impact coming from the COVID restrictions.

“It has helped to place a value on the development of individual skills,” says Ihrke.  “A large majority of our guys showed the commitment to put in time in their driveways, and our ball movement and areas like passing in practice have been really good.”

When it comes to the Mississippi 8 Conference and Section play, parity seems to be the most often used term to describe the upcoming season.  While Princeton returns the most players from a year ago and might be considered a slight favorite, he says there are a number of teams that can be expected to be in the mix.

“I think it’s wide open,” says Ihrke.  “From Big Lake to Monticello and even our guys, I think it will be competitive and there will be overall balance.”

Becker is scheduled to open play Thursday night with a matchup against Dassel-Cokato and on Friday they will be in North Branch.  The team currently has 18 games on the schedule, as that is the maximum allowed this year.  If a state tournament were to happen, the season would end the first week in April.

While attendance in the gymnasium is limited, Ihrke expects all of the games to be live streamed and says fans can check the activities website for details.

As far as the mask mandate that is guiding this season, the coach says his players have responded well. 

“In my opinion, it’s like training at high altitude,” says Ihrke, referring to the recovery time for playing with masks.  “After a few days our kids seemed to be adjusting to it.  Really our athletes are just excited to play and to get to have a season and a sense of normalcy.”

Helping Ihrke with the coaching duties this year in grades 9-12 will be Justin Liljequist, Troy Paumen, Ryan Seavert, Jon Crowley and Robert Hoekstra.

The coaches have been busy adjusting practice plans to comply with the 25 players per pod guidelines, but Ihrke says his team’s effort and flexibility has been excellent.

“We have had to adjust our practices a bit from our normal routines,” he says. “But our early practices and the enthusiasm of the kids has me excited that we can compete with any of the other teams.”

In other words, if the younger Bulldogs gain experience and get their injured players back, Becker just might be the team that no one wants to face come playoff time.