E/K-M's Betsy Huber growing in freshman season

Dec. 16—EDGELEY, N.D. — One year removed from making the state tournament, the Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier girls' basketball team returns a lot of experience, but one of its best players is a freshman.

This season, Betsy Huber has played in all four of the team's games, scoring 16 total points on 7-for-16 shooting with six total assists and six total steals as of Dec. 14.

"I've really been working on my shot. He (head coach Rory Entzi) helped show me a new way to have my shot have a little more arch and I've been staying after (practice) to shoot some of those shots and I just try to stay and work and have a good attitude in practice because as they said, you practice how you play and it all just comes together really nicely. If you can have fun with your team it really makes the game more fun."

Over the summer, Huber played for the Amateur Athletic Union team, ND Attack, with the goal of making it on the team during her freshman year.

"Last year, I came up after my eighth-grade season, I came up to practice to try and reach my max level of skill and just get better," Huber said. "I think that really helped because I got the drills down and I learned some plays so it kind of came easier to me."

Huber said she found out she made the team when the team came in for the team picture. This season, Huber is one three freshmen on the team alongside Mazie Tjernlund and Isabella Syversen.

"Izzy and I are in the same class and go to the same school," Huber said. "We've always been best friends for as long as I can remember and always are joking around. Same with Maize, her and I have been in sports together since the beginning. She makes me laugh at anytime of the day. It's honestly a great feeling to be so close to them and my team because when we are together we laugh always, sometimes at stuff that isn't even funny."

This season, Huber has played on the Rebels varsity and junior varsity teams which she said has helped her develop all of her skills.

"When kids are younger you gotta find that balance but I think the more they can play, they get six quarters a night, so the more they play those quarters a night, game experience is just something you can't take back," Rebels head coach Rory Entzi said. "You need game experience so the more we can play her those six quarters a night, I think the better she's going to be. When you're young you're learning, so I think she needs to have games where she's playing against more of her peers and more of her age level and I think that's good. I think she's got nights where she's playing against older girls and I think that's good."

She said, her best skill is her court vision. She said her most underrated skill is her shooting.

"Betsy is probably 6 feet tall and she can handle the ball," Rebels head coach Rory Entzi said. "So, what gives us is a kid that's very versatile. She's learning, I don't know if she's had to guard post players or not but that's what we're trying to get her to do, guard the post player, handle the ball a little bit. The best analogy I could think of is a Swiss Army knife, whatever we need to her do, we ask her to do. If she's gotta guard somebody on the perimeter that's what we ask her to do. If we need her to guard in the post that's what we ask her to do. She's a little bit of everything, which that's what you want your kids to be able to do, to be very versatile and multi-dimensional."

She is not the only member of her family to have success in sports as her older brothers, Isaac and Alex, both went on to compete collegiately.

"Sometimes during breaks or over the weekends when they come home, I strive to bring them out there in the garage with me and they show me different moves that I can work on," Huber said. "They really push me to do my best because they know how far I can get if I just put my time in and watching them play basketball and their sports over the years has helped my basketball IQ a lot and it has helped me see the game way better than I would've been able to."

As they look ahead to the rest of the season and the game against Battle Lake at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 16, Huber said she and her teammates are hoping to play well and go on a run in the state tournament.

"Just to stay healthy and not get injured and play to my best ability to try and help this team get to where we want to be and try and be as much use as I can," Huber said.