Bigfork fifth grade team goes undefeated

Perfection is rare in sports. Especially in youth sports. But the Bigfork Middle School fifth grade boys basketball team has experienced one of the rarest types of perfection in sports; an undefeated season.

“They really ended up doing a nice thing for themselves,” said head Bigfork fifth grade boys basketball coach Mike Potkonjak. “As an athlete you may never be on a team that is undefeated. So for them to have done this, and be able to always have it to look back on, is great.”

No one could’ve foreseen the Vikings ending things so sweetly when the season first started. Not even coach Potkonjak’s son Joseph, who was on the team.

“I didn’t think we’d be undefeated, but I knew we’d be pretty good,” said the younger Potkonjak.

They barely snuck by their first opponent, Somers-Lakeside, and won by just two points. The Vikings knew that first game would be tough. Potkonjak coached the fifth grade team last year and warned the boys that Somers-Lakeside was the toughest opponent his former team had faced.

“They are a very well-coached team,” Potkonjak said of Somers-Lakeside.

But unlike last year’s Bigfork fifth grade team, the boys pulled off a win to start their season off on a high note. The season opener, played Nov. 11, resulted in a 22-20 win for the Vikings at home, and two weeks later Bigfork triumphed again against Somers-Lakeside, this time in an away game, 24-13.

“The two games against Somers-Lakeside really set the tone for the boys for the season,” Potkonjak said. “They really showed how much the boys improved.”

The boys practiced three days a week for about two hours.

“They wanted to be successful and they demonstrated that by the way they practiced,” Potkonjak said. “I told them from the very beginning that the way they practiced would probably be the way they played games. We had a lot of fun, but they worked really hard.”

The boys practiced at the First Baptist Church of Bigfork, which has allowed the fifth grade team to practice in their gym for the last three years. The team has no affiliation with the church, other than using the gym since practice space is limited in the Bigfork area.

Potkonjak said that he was thankful to the parents for shuttling the 14 members of the team to practices, as well as games since fifth grade basketball does not get to use the school’s bus service.

Their practice, as well as their teamwork, paid off in the end. Potkonjak said that since Bigfork is a small school all of the boys knew each other prior to playing on the team, and that they are all friends with great chemistry.

“We had a lot of different skill levels within the team,” Potkonjak said. “It was really nice to see the boys helping each other and working well as a team. I was really pleased to see them do this.”

Going undefeated wasn’t as easy as the young Viking team made it look. Joseph said that the team often dealt with some jitters.

“The first half of every game was tough because we were nervous,” said Joseph Potkonjak. “We couldn’t make a basket. We were just missing a ton.”

Coach Potkonjak, who was assisted this season by Brenda Jordt, worked with the boys in practice to prepare them for what to expect during games. Through scrimmages and other drills the boys were able to go into games with more confidence as the season progressed.

“They are terrific young boys to coach,” Potkonjak said. “They’re very good athletes. They learned the ins and outs of the game very quickly.”

Coach Potkonjak said he is very proud of his team for their success this season and is thankful to all of the support from the community that made it possible for the team to play, he is especially thankful to BMS principal and athletic director Wayne Loeffler.

“Over and above all of his duties at the middle school he puts together a basketball program for these kids,” Potkonjak said. “He’s always there to do anything else he can to help too, including ref-ing the games. He does this for our team and the other middle school teams too.”

Although Bigfork’s side of the score board always had plenty of points this year, Potkonjak said that he wanted the boys to come away from the season with a larger lesson about teamwork.

“I tried to instill in the boys that sometimes there’s too much emphasis on who scores the most points,” Potkonjak said. “You don’t have to be the highest scorer to be of high value to the team. Passing the ball to the guy that makes the basket is just as important. So is rebounding and defending. All of these things help the team score. All of the guys on the team contributed to the success of the team this year. It was ll the little things that they put together.”