Marial Deng dribbles the ball at the Devils Lake Sports Center. (Photo by Noah Clooten)
The Indians hold a team huddle in their season opener on Dec. 13. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
Four Winds/Minnewaukan and Oak Grove tip off the 2025-26 season. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
Marial Deng passes the ball. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
Sonny Alberts looks down the court during a game at Four Winds High School. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
In each of the last two seasons, Four Winds/Minnewaukan has had a strong team. The Indians have often found themselves in the top-five rankings. They’ve had a Mr. Basketball winner in Deng Deng. Once a perennial contender in Class B, they’ve adjusted well to the Class A level.
But in each season, they couldn’t quite get over the hump of making the state tournament. Last year, they lost to Wahpeton in a state qualifier game.
“We fell short, and that hurts a little bit,” FW/M head coach Rick Smith said. “When you know that you had a good chance to be there and compete, and you see teams in the state tournament, and you beat them, and you played against them. And so it’s hard to watch. So we’ve just got to take care of business, one game at a time, and keep improving until that tournament time. And then hopefully be playing your best basketball at that time.”
The Indians had an enormous varsity roster last year with 20 players. This season, it’s much smaller at a more manageable 13.
The bench isn’t quite as deep — but Smith actually likes it that way.
“Last year, we played so many guys and didn’t really get a lot of consistency in our team,” Smith said. “This year, we’re going with about eight guys, maybe nine, and getting a good rotation out there. We stay away from injuries, this is going to be a nice little rotation that we have.”
The Indians saw two key performances in their opener that they hope will translate into season-long success. Jonte Delorme and Sonny Alberts, who bring different but similarly valuable skill sets, each had a big game to open the 2025-26 campaign.
Delorme is a relatively small guy, a 5-foot-10 senior. But he’s quick and shoots the ball well from beyond the arc.
Last year, Delorme averaged 7.4 points per game. He opened this season with a 27-point performance.
“Jonte has always had the ability to play at a high level,” Smith said. “He came in as a freshman to a new system, and it wasn’t his offense that we battled with; it was his defense, and his intensity on the defensive end, that we battled with. He’s always had the smarts to the game. He just needed to turn his game up a little bit. And when he does that, you’ve got to keep him on the floor.”
Smith said that Delorme added some muscle over the summer. It showed last Saturday, when Delorme got to the rim six times — in addition to his four three-pointers.
“When he gets against those bigger, stronger guards, he can battle them a little bit better,” Smith said. “I think he’s really going to have a good year for us. I really do. And he can score from getting to the rim, and he can score from the outside.”
Alberts, meanwhile, is physically gifted and looks to have fine-tuned his skills heading into his sophomore year. Already 6-foot-4 and muscular, he’s an invaluable presence in the post.
Alberts had a knee injury last year that limited him to 4.2 points per game. He comes into this season fresh and better-equipped to be a reliable player for the Indians.
“I think over the summer, he really worked at that, to try and bolster that, try to get stronger and stay away from them nagging injuries,” Smith said. “So hopefully we can keep him for a full season, because he’s a big part of our team.”
Alberts can use his size to dominate on the boards and finish at the rim.
“Sonny is extremely smart for being a sophomore,” Smith said. “He’s a very, very good passer from the post. He’s a very good passer from the top of the key. He’s always a first-look post, which you don’t see very often. First-pass look. So he’s very good at that. And once he gets that double-team off him, then he can go to work, one-on-one. And he’s hard to stop, because once he turns his shoulder into him, he’s got the jump-hook. A jump-hook’s hard to block, especially at 6-4 and wide.”
Alberts also made a triple in his 20-point performance to open the season. Smith said Alberts has developed confidence in that shot, making him not just a one-note player.
And then there’s the ever-reliable, 6-foot-5 senior Marial Deng. At this point, Smith mostly knows what he has in the younger Deng brother. He led the team with 14.4 points per game last year.
Aside from his performance on the court, Smith is hoping to see some leadership from Deng this winter.
“He’s got that, but he needs to be vocal about it,” Smith said. “He’s a very intelligent basketball player. … He’s a pretty good outside shooter. I don’t have any issues with that. Very, very, very good defender. And so he has to do it all out there for us at times. But we lean on him a lot to do that.”
Football has become the focus for Deng, who’s fully committed to join his brother on the UND gridiron next fall. But his added strength certainly doesn’t hurt to have in basketball as well.
“Another kid that’s just gotten stronger and stronger and stronger, because he knows what he’s doing after high school. He knows what he has to do now,” Smith said. “He’s got to use that to his strength out there on the floor.”
Tyler Black Jr. and Dayson Dubois help fill out the starting five, with Joran Lohnes, Keyson Littlewind, Dion Jackson Jr., Kaleb Keja and Lander Guy providing contributions off the bench.
With some of Region 2’s biggest players graduating last year, Smith is hopeful that his Indians will thrive.
“We lost a lot of big guys in the region. We went from one of the smaller teams to one of the bigger teams,” Smith said. “Thompson lost some giants. Devils Lake lost some giants. Grafton lost their giant. Hillsboro lost the big guy, but still got a big guy back. And Carrington lost their point guard. So there was a lot of very, very good seniors that left our region, but a lot of good teams left.”
It’s still a competitive region, with two-time region champion Devils Lake ranked highly again, and Grafton expected to be competitive as well. Thompson can often be a sneaky tough team, too. The region also adds May-Port-C-G and Harvey/Wells County.
“It’s going to be more balanced than it has been,” Smith said. “Devils Lake has kind of ruled our region the last two years, with Grafton being up there and Thompson being up there. But they lost a lot of good players, and they’ll be the same as us. They’ve just got to keep improving, keep getting better, and we’ve got to do the same thing.”
