Photo via lrscroyals.com
Colden Hutton, in his first year coaching the Lake Region State College women’s basketball team, did the best he could with what he had.
It wasn’t the smoothest year. There were only nine players to start the season, which shrunk to six or seven after injuries. A five-game losing streak to end the regular season doomed the Royals’ chances of a Mon-Dak title.
They won a playoff game, but were eliminated by North Dakota State College of Science.
They went 15-17 overall and 7-7 in conference play.
“We could never win the big game,” Hutton said. “I mean, you look at the top half of our conference, and we struggled to beat them. We struggled to beat Science, Bismarck and Williston.
“We have Science; three of the four times, we play them within six points. Two of those times, we’re up big at halftime and going into the third quarter. We just can’t figure out ways to win. So that’s something that we’ve got to build on and be better at this year — just being in those games, knowing how to win and being able to pull those big games off.”
This year, Hutton has assembled a slightly bigger roster. There are 11 on the team, eight of whom are new to the program. Some of them are local, while others come from countries like New Zealand, Scotland and Australia.
Each player will have to earn her spot.
“It’s always competitive,” Hutton said. “That’s one thing in my recruiting spiel that I tell all of them, is you’re not promised a starting spot here. I don’t care if you averaged 50 points in high school or you averaged zero points in high school. Everybody comes in on an equal playing field.”
As the Royals prepare to start their season in New Town, they have two players simultaneously in the thick of volleyball playoffs. Freshman Torri Fee and sophomore Sydney Schwabe are the primary libero and setter, respectively, for an LRSC volleyball team that recently locked up the No. 2 seed in the Mon-Dak.
Fee, a Devils Lake native, originally signed just for volleyball. Steve Waddell, the Royals’ volleyball coach, ignited the discussion about having her add basketball after the fact.
The teams have worked together to manage conflicting schedules.
“Having that conversation with her and letting her know that volleyball is first, you’re in season, volleyball is first,” Hutton said. “Do everything volleyball, and then once volleyball is done, come be a part of our basketball team. And she was on board with that, luckily.”
Schwabe returns to the Royals after leading them in scoring as a freshman. She and Fee will both be missed as LRSC plays in the Mon-Dak Preseason Tournament at Four Bears Event Center from Friday through Sunday. The volleyball team begins the Region XIII tournament in Wahpeton on Saturday.
“Both of them have been to as much stuff as they can be at,” Hutton said. “Luckily, Sydney knows kind of our system. We’re doing something similar. So the learning curve isn’t as big. And Torri knows how to win and is a basketball player, so she’ll catch on right away. But both of them, I commend them for how willing they are to kind of do both at the same time.”
As one of three returners, Schwabe will be one of the captains of this team. She’s already a captain on the volleyball team despite only joining it as a sophomore.
Schwabe scored 415 points last season. She made 78 three-pointers. But Hutton wants to see her expand her game, finish around the rim more and not just be labeled as a shooter.
“The leadership point of it, but also just building on what last year was,” Hutton said. “The start of the year was a little bit more back-offish, just trying to get used to the game, the speed. Every freshman coming in, it’s a little bit different speed from what they’re used to. … And as the season went on, she progressively got better and better. And so I think that as she knows now, kind of the competition and the speed of the game, she’s gonna be even better.”
LRSC complements Schwabe with freshman Zoie Austin. She scored over 1,000 points in her high school career for Bismarck Century, but she plays a different type of offensive game than Schwabe.
“In high school, teams kind of dorked her. She didn’t shoot well in high school,” Hutton said. “But I was surprised coming here, just seeing her in the first couple scrimmages, how well she actually does shoot the ball. … Now it’s just kind of fine-tuning that stuff.”
Austin led Bismark Century to the Class AA state championship game this past winter. She was named a Lions All-Star and scored 35 points over the two-game series.
Bismarck Century made the state tournament three times in her four years of high school.
“I had a really great group of teammates, and my coaches, like [Nathan] Welstad and [Matt] Thornton, always pushed me as hard as I could,” Austin said. “And I think that is where I grew a lot, and they helped me definitely become the player I am today.”
Coming out of high school, Austin had interest from some of the other top teams in the Mon-Dak. But a visit to LRSC won her over.
“I came and had a lunch with the coach and the girls, and they were just really nice, and they made me feel really welcome,” Austin said. “And it just felt like it would be a good fit for me. A place that Coach seemed like he would work as hard in practice and have a good balance between school and basketball.”
Austin has led LRSC in scoring during preseason scrimmages. But with a team of college-level players around her, she doesn’t have to take center stage the way she might have in high school.
Hutton has had a chance to dial in Austin’s game to suit the team’s needs.
“At Bismarck Century, she was kind of allowed to do a lot of whatever she wanted to do, a little bit, within their system,” Hutton said. “And so now it’s kind of playing as a team and realizing that she doesn’t always have to do everything.”
The scrimmages have been against teams like Minot State University and Minnesota Crookston. They’re a good test of experience for players who are just a few months removed from being in high school.
“It’s really a lot different and a lot to get adjusted to, but I think that my teammates and my coaches, they’re helping me a lot,” Austin said. “The sophomores already having a year of experience, that helps a lot. If you have questions or anything, they’re so willing to help, and they don’t ever make you feel dumb or like you should know what you’re doing, exactly. It’s just a learning process, and everybody realizes that.”
Over the last three years, the LRSC women’s basketball program has had six players move on to play at the NCAA level.
Hutton sees Austin being that type of talent for the Royals.
“We want her to score; we want her to be great on that end,” he said. “But just making sure that she’s developing, as well. Lake Region isn’t necessarily the end goal for everybody. So developing her into that D-I, D-II basketball player.”
Another in-state addition to the team is Devils Lake’s own Tylee Black. She was on the 2023-24 Firebirds team, alongside Fee, that won a Class A state championship.
Black went to school at LRSC as a freshman but didn’t play basketball. Around March or April, Hutton said, she came up to him expressing interest in joining the team.
Black has already gone down with a torn meniscus. But Hutton is hopeful that it won’t sideline her for more than a couple months, and that she’ll be ready around Christmas for the thick of the season.
“Obviously a bit rusty, taking a whole year off,” Hutton said. “But developing as she goes.”
Outside the state, LRSC brings in two freshmen who came to Devils Lake all the way from New Zealand: Caitlin Hull and Kiritiana Patea. They landed on Hutton’s radar from a recruiter who reached out to him. After watching their film, Hutton got in contact with the players and their families, then sold them on becoming Royals.
They’ll join Australian sophomore Lara Graham and Scottish transfer Danielle McNamara as international players on the team.
“The things that I learn, too, from our cultures, whether it’s right here in Devils Lake and what they’ve been used to, to New Zealand, to Australia; we have a girl from South Milwaukee [sophomore Jenna Tierney]. We have people from all over the place,” Hutton said. “And just seeing them grow as a team, grow as a family, throughout this journey so far, and even as we go on, it’s gonna be great to see how we develop.”
Hutton described Hull as a hard-nosed defender with lots of energy.
Patea is tied with Minnesotan freshman Brooke Welle for the tallest player on the team at six feet. She fills the role of a post player that LRSC didn’t really have last year.
“We had Kiara [Holweger] kind of play in the post, and she was 5-7 and was more so of a guard,” Hutton said. “So just bringing in a post player that can guard the bigs; we do see some bigs in our league that are very good. … So just having [Patea’s] size, her ability to rebound, and then also being able to space the floor with her shooting ability, too.”
The Royals also have a freshman from the town they’re traveling to this weekend. Ayiana Gray joins LRSC out of New Town High School in North Dakota.
The team brings players together from near and far to form one cohesive unit.
“Right away, we clicked,” Austin said. “And it’s just a fun group of girls. They’re really fun to be around. It’s always a laugh no matter what. But then when we’re on the court, we can switch it to being serious and working hard and bringing each other up all the time. So it’s been really fun meeting new people and just figuring out college, but already having a support system and a group of girls that I know I can truly rely on.”
Without Schwabe, Fee or Black, the team will travel to New Town with eight players. With three games in three days, these are the first contests that count towards the Royals’ overall record. But conference play doesn’t start until after the new year.
“We might struggle a little bit early on, just with Sydney and Torri [at volleyball],” Hutton said. “A little selfishly, we want them with us, but if they’re not with us, that means volleyball is winning a lot more. Once we get them back, we’ll have our full roster and be ready to go.”
As a new player on the squad, Austin also likes the direction of the group.
“We’ve had a few scrimmages, and it’s been good,” Austin said. “I think that we’re undersized, but we don’t let that affect us too much. We don’t play like it. And I think there’s a lot of room for us to grow, which, again, is very promising. When you can see that a team has so much room to develop, and we’re getting to that, it’s really nice to see. It’s really fun to see where we’re gonna go.”
The Royals tip off Friday at 10:15 a.m. against Jamestown JV. They’ll have games Saturday and Sunday, with times and opponents to be determined.
“I think it’s good for our group right now to be able to get a lot of minutes, especially going into New Town,” Hutton said. “So just getting a lot of reps. Yes, we might get tired at times, but just being able to play through that and kind of build from there.”
Hutton sees this weekend, and the rest of the early-season slate, as valuable preparation for the Mon-Dak schedule. With ideally all 11 players back on the court come January, the team is shooting for greater things in the second season of Hutton’s tenure.
“I’m super excited for it. We’ve got high aspirations for us,” Hutton said. “There’s a lot of banners in our practice gym; our goal is to add another one to that. Hasn’t been done in — I think 2017 was the last one that’s hung up in there. So we’ve got a big, steep goal to build on, to get to, but that’s our goal. And I think that we have the group to do it.”
