By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Teams that lose seven seniors and three starters don’t often come back stronger the next season.

The Faith boys basketball team had a banner 2022-23 season reaching the Class B state tournament where it finished seventh. The Longhorns graduated three starters and seven seniors from that team. But as it rolls toward mid-February, Faith is 14-2 with its only losses against Class A foes Hot Springs and Mobridge-Pollock. 

“First of all, Jackson Schauer and Caden Selby are two of the best scorers in the state so we knew we would still be good,” Faith coach Travis Grueb said. 

Schauer scores at a 24 points per game clip and Selby is just a shade under 19 points. Those two senior leaders have been fantastic but coach Grueb points to a group of sophomores that are contributing. 

“We have a great group of sophomores that were freshmen last year and competed against the older kids,” Grueb said. “Those guys have really accepted their roles and have bought into what we need them to do, which is play defense and rebound.”

For Schauer and Selby, this their senior season culminates a lifetime of playing and practicing the game they love. 

“Growing up we lived about a block away from each other,” Schauer said. “We got a basketball court at my house in the fifth grade but before that we played in the driveway over at Caden’s house.”

At the 2023 state tournament the Longhorns lost to White RIver (72-56) and Castlewood (59-49) before grabbing seventh place with a 75-56 win over Ethan. The state tournament experience was one that exposed a weakness of just not being strong enough.

“We felt like we were in the two games we lost with a chance to win late,” Grueb said. “We came home as a team and as a whole felt we just weren’t strong enough to take the bumping from the other bigger kids.” 

While the entire team improved their strength in the off-season, Schauer, a 6-foot-1 senior guard revamped his body coming back for his senior year after putting on 20 pounds of muscle.

“He’s got a quicker first step than most kids and can get into the lane,” Grueb said. “Now he steps in and is taking the contact and the bumps and still having the body control to finish at the rim. He always could get there but now he can get there and finish. “

At 6-foot-7, Selby has been the Longhorns’ big guy for several years despite being a guard.

“He might as well be 5-foot-10 because he plays like a guard,” Grueb said. “It’s nice that he is 6-foot-7 though so he can get in there and rebound and he has gotten stronger.”

The Longhorns added an intriguing transfer this summer in 6-foot-7 sophomore Tucker Miller. The Ipswich transfer opted to play for Faith this season after seeing the Longhorns in the state tournament last year. 

Grueb said Miller fit in immediately with the small town and even gravitated toward the farm and ranch kids. Miller jumped into the starting lineup for Faith this season and his 6-foot-7 frame gives the Longhorns tremendous size as they hope for a return trip to the Class B state tournament. 

“Tucker is our rim protector, rebounder and plays good defense,” Grueb said. “He’s only a sophomore so he still hasn’t quite grown into his frame but he finds ways to help us win. We can coach a lot of things but we can’t coach 6-foot-7.”

Grueb feels like the addition of Miller and the presence of having the twin towers helps his team match up better with some of the teams they could potentially meet in the postseason. 

“I like our chances with two big kids,” he said. “That size should help us matchup defensively better than we could last season.” 

Faith’s other two starters are senior Klayte McLellan and 6-foot-2 junior Drew Harper. Grueb said McLellan does a lot of Faith’s ball handling and takes some of that pressure off Schauer.  McLellan often draws the assignment of guarding the other team's best guard. Grueb called Miller a hard worker that is very strong, knows his role and will give you everything he’s got on the defensive end. 

And then there are the other sophomores that come off the bench. Schauer referenced Krece Halligan, Cooper Schuelke and Tace Berglund as players that come off the bench and give the Longhorns a big lift. 

“The sophomores have exceeded all expectations,” Schauer said. “In the championship game of the Little Moreau Conference, Krece scored eight points and Cooper had five points.”

As the postseason rolls around, Grueb is hoping that experience of winning a SoDak 16 game and playing in a state tournament permeates this year's team. 

“Moving forward and taking that experience with us and with these kids knowing that they can win big games,” Grueb said. “That experience is going to help us and we are looking forward to the challenge and don’t fear anyone in those big games.”