Parker Brodina (Photos by Noah Clooten)
The Devils Lake boys’ basketball team is in an interesting spot.
Three of the five starters on the championship team have graduated — including the 2024 state tournament MVP, Wylee Delorme. But two of the Firebirds’ top offensive weapons are back, and the team is still deep despite the talent they’ve lost.
With a combination of familiar and fresh faces alike, Devils Lake kicked off a new season with official practices starting the week of Dec. 2.
“It’s good to move on,” head coach Dustin Brodina said. “We put the championship season behind us now, and start the new chapter…and see what this new team is gonna look like. A little different; we lost some guys from last year.”
Delorme averaged just about 18 points per game last year, and had an explosive performance in the state tournament that carried Devils Lake to a championship. He’s now playing basketball at the University of Mary. The team also graduated Beau Brodina, who averaged nearly 10 points a game and was a rock-solid defender, and Drew Hofstad, a guard with a penchant for three-pointers.
Senior Parker Brodina, who will be joining Delorme at Mary next year, takes more of the spotlight. He was the second-most productive scorer on last year’s team, with 14.1 points per game, and was an all-state tournament selection.
“We’re gonna expect some big things out of Parker, and our other seniors as well,” Brodina said. “Very good defensive leaders as well, so we’ve got some shoes to fill there with losing those guys.”
A big X-factor is Joel Nelson, who returns for his senior year after playing on the same AAU team as P. Brodina this summer. Nelson is a 6-foot-6 forward, and the younger brother of 6-foot-11 Alabama star Grant Nelson.
Nelson put up 9.4 points per game in the regular season last year, though that number alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Early in the campaign, Nelson dealt with inconsistencies and foul trouble. As he rounded into form in the latter half of the season, his natural athleticism allowed him to be just as dynamic a player as Delorme or Brodina in stretches.
The key for him this year will be consistency.
“He works hard. His maturity is gonna be even more this year,” Brodina said. “His physical maturity will be more, but also that mental aspect to carry that game to game, so that little things don’t get to him. He’s a big part of what we’re doing here and a big part for us to be successful this year.”
When the Firebirds were at their best in the championship-winning season, Delorme, Brodina and Nelson formed a three-headed monster. Now, with Brodina and Nelson each playing their final year of high school basketball, they’ll be the duo that will lead this team on and off the court.
“I love playing with Joel just because he works so hard and he never quits,” P. Brodina said. “So it’s fun to play with him. And sometimes you never know what he’s gonna do because he’s just that good.”
So with only two returning starters, who will round out the starting five?
The first and most obvious option is junior Mason Palmer. Though not blessed with extraordinary height at 5-foot-11, Palmer is one of the most well-rounded athletes Devils Lake has. He’s the starting quarterback on the football team and a standout pitcher, hitter and shortstop on the baseball team — along with being a really good basketball player.
As a sophomore last year, Palmer found himself buried a little bit in the roster because of how deep and talent-heavy the Firebirds were. Technically still an underclassman, he powered the JV team to a nearly-undefeated season while getting mixed in at times on the varsity team. During the season last year, Brodina acknowledged that Palmer would “probably be starting on 95% of the teams in the state.”
Yet Palmer still managed to put up seven points per game on the varsity team, and he came up with some critical shots in the playoffs, too. Despite not being an official member of the starting five, he was undoubtedly one of the team’s most important assets.
And now he’s earned himself a more guaranteed role.
“He hit a lot of big shots down the stretch last year… I expect him to be a leader,” Brodina said. “He’s gonna kind of be our floor general a little bit, to a certain extent. And yeah, we look for big things from him this year.”
With P. Brodina, Nelson and Palmer all essentially locked into spots, the next probable starter is senior Oliver Wirth. A strong, athletic forward standing at 6-foot-6, Wirth was another player who got buried on the roster last season. Wirth is also an all-state wide receiver and a state tournament high-jumper.
“He’s gonna have a great year for us. I know he will,” Brodina said. “Because all that’s behind him, as far as whether he’s gonna start or not. But he focuses on getting better every day and doing the little things better. It’s gonna be exciting for him. Super athletic kid; he can put the ball in the hole, and he can dunk the ball. Sharpen up a few things, and he’ll be right where we need him to be.”
With those four penciled into starting spots, uncertainty of the fifth role remains. With Hofstad and B. Brodina gone, the Firebirds are going to need some defense to keep them as strong as they were last year. As far as who will take that final spot and run with it, it could be a revolving door.
“We are gonna need three or four other guys to step up,” Brodina said. “And honestly, in my mind, I’m thinking about nine or 10 that have that potential to take that role. Not necessarily going to name names, but those guys are gonna have a lot of opportunities, and there’s gonna be a lot of competition created to fill those voids. And that’ll be good, and that’ll fluctuate, I think, throughout the year.”
Besides P. Brodina, Nelson and Wirth, there are five seniors on the team: Gavin Wolf, Marquese Dubois, Fausten Olson, Trason Beck and Hunter Remmick. Kade Fee and Bryar Exner return as juniors alongside Palmer — in addition to Palmer’s twin brother, Max Palmer, who’s only 5-foot-8 but showed a pretty strong shooting prowess last year too, including a 15-point performance in the opening game of the region tournament.
Devils Lake also adds Ben Brodina to the varsity roster this season. In the wake of the oldest Brodina sibling graduating, the youngest one steps in. Brodina is the only freshman on the roster. Sophomores Will Heilman and Talan Gregory both earned varsity promotions this year as well, and are the only 10th-graders on the roster.
It’ll take a team mentality to win this thing again, much as it did last year. There’s no doubt that Devils Lake is missing some of its key pieces from last season, but at the same time, there’s similarly little doubt that the Firebirds have quite an array of remaining options at their disposal. There are more talented players than there are spots.
And so it will be vital for these players to gel with each other. Even before official practices started, the team was holding 6 a.m. workouts and bonding exercises. Many of the kids know each other from other sports as well. Both Palmers, Wirth, Exner, Fee, Heilman, Gregory and B. Brodina were all on the football team. Both Palmers, both Brodinas, Olson, Beck, Remmick, Heilman and Gregory were all on the spring and summer baseball teams (JV and/or varsity). Nelson, Wirth, Exner and Dubois were all on last spring’s track and field team.
“Stressing the team aspect; not one person any better than the other out there,” D. Brodina said. “Five guys working together. That’s the one thing that we will stress from day one here today, starting today. We’re gonna be practicing here probably 60 times this year… I think that’ll pay off in the end, when it comes down to it. Potentially, when your back is against the wall, you’re gonna have five guys sticking together, ready for each other.”
Region 2 was objectively the toughest region in Class A boys’ basketball last year, and it should be a similarly tough battleground again. Grafton, which finished as the third-place team at state, and Thompson, which lost in a state qualifier game, both return quality rosters. Four Winds/Minnewaukan, which held steady with Devils Lake throughout the regular season, lost its Mr. Basketball in Deng Deng, but could still be a threat with Deng’s younger brother Marial and a veteran coach in Rick Smith.
The only team listed above Devils Lake in the preseason ranking, funny enough, was Kindred, the team Devils Lake beat in the state championship game. Despite not being in Region 2, Kindred does have a contest against Devils Lake on its regular-season schedule. It’s set for Feb. 22.
“I think we’ll have probably the toughest region again this year, which is good,” Brodina said. “I like that, because that sets us up better for the state tournament — hopefully we make it to the state tournament — and in postseason play. Kindred, yeah, they’re gonna be an extremely tough opponent. We’ve got them on our schedule this year, and it’s gonna be one that we highlight… Nobody’s gonna be easy or a pushover — whether it’s Grafton, Thompson; Four Winds will be tough again too. Hillsboro[/Central Valley] and Carrington, they always bring it. So night in and night out, these guys are gonna have to be ready to go.”
The expectations are high. The hopes are high. And the talent is there to meet those thresholds. But the Firebirds aren’t losing sight of what makes them good, and what will make them a successful team.
“We’ll keep our goals in perspective a little bit,” Brodina said. “Our goal obviously will be to win the state championship, but the focus here, starting now, is to get better every single day, to make sure that we’re working extremely hard, and to be the best version of us that we can right now.”
