It’s been a roller coaster ride of this year for Timpview basketball. The team was young and scrappy, with lots of potential. Led by senior Nate Hansen, (23.67 PPG) the Thunderbirds had a 14-10 record this season, good enough for a 3rd place finish in Region 7. The team was eliminated in the first round of state by Timpanogos, a heartbreaking end to the season, as this is Timpview’s third straight first round exit.

Senior Kelson Jensen said “I’d say it was a success. We could’ve done better towards the end of the season than we did, and our State Tournament result was a little disappointing, we should’ve gone a little farther than that but, I’d say it was a success. A few rough patches but we did well.”

Sophomore Coleman Ford said, “The season was a total success, we had a winning record, and tied for second in Region, we won our Vegas Tournament and overall just played really good as a team.”

Losing in state so early was disappointing, especially for the seniors since it marked the end of their high school basketball career.

“It’s really sad, kinda disappointing that I’m done with basketball. It hasn’t really hit me yet, I don’t know. It’s hard though. Hard to finish, hard to end,” said Jensen.

“It’s kinda weird, a lot of memories, it’s sad but also everything comes to an end at some point, so you gotta just look at the past and enjoy it but also be excited for the future,” said senior Nate Hansen.

Hansen committed to play basketball at BYU after serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Hansen took on a bigger role this year, increasing his scoring average by 8 points per game from last season. Hansen scored a total of 568 points this year, more than a third of the team’s total points for the year (1,547).

“In the past I had Hunter I could rely on who was a really good scorer, and this year I had to change from being a passer and getting Hunter the ball to looking for my own shot and being able to score of my own stuff. I just looked to be more aggressive and develop my game so I could do that,” said Hansen.

Jensen also showed remarkable improvement this year, raising his season average from 7.42 PPG to 12.42 PPG.

“I picked it up a little more at the end of the season, put my heart into it, and listened to coaches more. I think it helped our team get better for sure.” Jensen said.

This year’s team consisted of a lot underclassman–Sophomores Jake Whalin, Coleman Ford, Jaxon Santiago, and Josh Hansen, and Freshman Yaw Reneer.  Although younger and more inexperienced, these underclassman ended up being key players on the team.

“As the season went on everyone found out what their role was, and it was totally different from last year, a totally different lineup, and everyone did what they were supposed to do. We ended up playing really good together by the end,” said Jensen.

While the season just ended, it’s never too early to look toward the future.

“I think we will win the state championship next year and my senior year,” said sophomore Jaxon Santiago.

Ford said “The potential is crazy, we’re gonna be so good in the next couple years. I’m super excited and looking forward to it, we gotta work hard.”

This requires Timpview to have “better execution of our gameplan, and play more together as a team,” according to Santiago.

With this season in the books, we say a sad goodbye to the basketball season for the time being. We’ll miss our seniors, but we look forward to what future seasons have in store for Timpview.