Five questions with HHS girls coach Dustin Kraske

The Havre High girls have been to three straight Class A state tournaments. Now, with a new and somewhat inexperienced team, the Blue Ponies start their quest to get back there tonight in Malta.

The HDN sat down for five questions regarding the upcoming season with veteran head coach Dustin Kraske.

HDN: What do you look forward to most at the start of a new season?

Kraske: "Trying to get our kids to learn how to play together, teaching them what their roles are and explaining to them how those roles evolve in preparation to accomplish what we want to accomplish, that being the best team that we can be. I enjoy that probably more than anything."

HDN: How do team goals differ from year to year?

Kraske: "We pretty much stay the same and our team goals will always be the same. We want to be the best team we can by the end of the season and to accomplish whatever is meant to be so to speak. If being the best team that we can be means taking fourth at state than good for us. And that's what we talk about, we don't talk about winning or losing or divisional championships, I just enforce into their minds that we need to play hard, play together and be the best team we can be. Whatever those results are, we will be happy with. We just want to conduct our business in a first class manner because we represent Havre High and the community."

HDN: Is there an opponent or game that you look forward to most?

Kraske: "We look forward to our 10 conference games more than anything because they mean so much. But for me selfishly, I look forward to coaching and playing against Park High School. Part of that is because their coach and I are pretty good friends and I think he coaches the program the right way and his kids play very well."

HDN: What's the first thing you work on at practice at the beginning of a new season?

Kraske: "We spend a lot of time working on the small points of basketball, sort of the fundamentals of it. We spend a lot of time on the things you need to do well to have a good team. You can coach basketball a hundred different ways and they are all correct, but if teams are similar in talent then the little things make a big difference."

HDN: If your players learn one thing this season, what would you want that to be?

Kraske: "Learn how to play together, I think that is a lifelong skill. They play together for us, but later on in life it will be working together. I think that is huge and I think that is most difficult to do, and that's what I want our kids to learn and do."