SHS winter teams are on the right track

If you’ve read any of the end-of-the-season recaps for Sandpoint High School’s winter sports teams, you should’ve noticed a trend.

The Bulldogs are young and on the right path.

Both basketball and wrestling teams have a young core that will be back next season.

The Sandpoint girls’ basketball team has been consistent for the past decade,(I think I’ve reiterated how many years they’ve been to state enough) and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

Sandpoint is returning three all-league players in Daylee Driggs, Aliya Strock, and Kelsey Cessna.

The Sandpoint wrestling team broke down a barrier when it won its first 4A District I-II championship since 2008.

After expecting a breakout performance from the Sandpoint grapplers down at the 4A Idaho state tournament, only one of its 11 state qualifiers placed at the tournament.

But once again, out of those 11, 10 will be back on the mat in 2023.

The Sandpoint boys' basketball team ended losing streaks and got back to the 4A District I-II championship game.

This was after years of not being able to win a regular season league game..

The biggest asset for all three teams is youth, not just youth, but young players with big-game experience.

When an underclassman plays in a district championship or participates in a state tournament, that experience is immeasurable.

You don’t want to be a senior at state with no experience, and luckily for Sandpoint’s girls' basketball and wrestling team, they’ll have plenty of experience next year if the teams go down to Boise.

The path to success for all three programs could be linked to the middle school and youth programs around the area.

When talking to Jake Stark, Sandpoint’s head wrestling coach, he had said Sandpoint’s youth wrestling club had over 90 kids this season.

Keeping players engaged and involved from an early age is what builds successful high school programs.

One prime example of this is Freshman wrestler Jordan Tyler.

Tyler wrestled throughout his adolescent years and made it to the state tournament during his first year of high school wrestling.

Tyler lost both of his matches at the 4A Idaho state tournament, but gaining that experience is going to do wonders for his wrestling career.

For basketball, Sandpoint girls have seemed to do a lot with its years of success, but its youth and middle school basketball programs are very strong.

I’ve only been at the Bee for a month now, but I’ve already received three emails about Sandpoint Future winning basketball tournaments around the region.

It starts from the ground up, and that’s with anything. The youth sports around the region should take a bow because it has a lot to do with the path that Sandpoint athletics is currently on.