North Gem sports

Stories below were written by the coaches, and used with the permission of the School District.  

North Gem Wrestling 

By Coach Danny Barfuss 

January has been tough with sickness, injuries, and weather. The boys started in Bear Lake shaking off the dust from Christmas break. We then went to the Aberdeen tournament and ended up with Lukky leading the team with a 3- 2 record, Luke 2-2, and Haydn 2-3. Last week we went to Kooskia for the Clearwater Valley North/South Duals. This was one of the best tournaments we have ever been to, with the boys being able to compete against the northern schools we never get to see except at the State finals. They competed in 10 duals with Potlatch, Nampa Christian, Clearwater Valley, St. Maries, Grangeville, Lakeside, Kellogg, Priest River, McCall, and Ririe. 

The first week of February is District Duals in Malad followed by the District tournament in Westside. They will be working hard the next couple of weeks trying to secure a spot at the state finals. I wish these boys good health and know they will work hard. Good luck at districts, boys. Let’s bring home some hardware. 

Girls Basketball Regular Season Ends 

By Coach Ken Christensen 

The Lady Cowboys finished their regular season having played twenty varsity games and eight junior varsity games. The girls finished up with an overall record of 9-11 and a conference record of 9-6. This puts us right in the middle, fifth out of ten teams. 

I challenged the girls on the first day, don’t be late for practice and don’t miss practice. We haven’t had any tardiness at all; however, illness and injuries are impossible to avoid. We still have five of the eleven girls who have not missed a practice yet. They include Indyana Hatch, Sage Daniels, Katelyn Whiting, Kymberli Jensen, and Dally Frandsen. 

Each girl has been awarded the player of the game belt at least once this season. Each young lady has improved an incredible amount. 

Senior night was held on Tuesday January 23. We celebrated our two seniors, Samantha Yost and Hayden Corta. Both girls are super young ladies and they will be sorely missed. 

The last two years have been huge learning experience for all those involved. It has been two of my favorite years coaching ever. Last year, five of the ten girls were freshman, and though we were only able to muster five conference wins, it was enjoyable to work extra hard to help them understand the game. This year, four of the eleven girls again were freshman. This time we were able to earn nine conference wins, and again work extra hard to help them understand the game. 

Bring on the district tournament! 

North Gem Boys Basketball January Report 

By Tracey Corta, Head Coach 

The North Gem boys basketball team put together a successful month of January. At the time of this writing, the boys had won 6 and lost 3 during the first month of 2024. 

The boys kicked off the new year with a big home win against Sho-Ban 63 – 33. Ryver Hayden led the way with 19 points and a career high 16 rebounds. The Cowboys followed this home win with a tightly contested win in Pocatello against Grace Lutheran. The game was much closer than the final score indicated as the boys battled for the entire game and eventually ended up winning 57 – 44. Evan O’Brien paced the Cowboys with a strong 26 points and 19 rebounds. 

The following week saw the schedule get wrecked by the weather with a couple of games getting cancelled. The North Gem teams managed to squeeze in a conference game at Watersprings early in the week however. Despite a valiant effort in which the boys had whittled a double-digit Watersprings lead to just 5 several times in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys eventually fell 57 – 43. 

The Cowboys split a couple of road conference games the following week, beating Sho-Ban 48-38 and losing to Mackay 61 – 55. In the Sho-Ban game, Gage Setser stuffed the stat sheet with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals while Evan O’Brien turned in his usual double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Against Mackay, we had four players, Ryver Hayden, Craig Yost, Gage Setser, and Evan O’Brien all score in double figures in the losing effort. 

The boys bounced back from their loss at Mackay with two important conference wins at home against Leadore and Taylor’s Crossing. Both games were won by at least 25 points and represented the highwater mark for the Cowboys offense so far this season with 72 and 65 points scored, respectively. The boys, playing their fourth game in 7 days, took a tough loss at Malad to end the games so far in January. 

The boys have really come together as a team and have set themselves up to be in a position to host a district playoff game or two in a couple of weeks.