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By DANIEL LOCKE | Staff Writer

In February 2024, the Helena Huskies made their first Final Four appearance in school history, but fell 60-47 to Class 6A state champion Buckhorn in the semifinals.

The Huskies were unable to replicate that success last season, finishing 15-14 and falling to Benjamin Russell in the first round of the playoffs.

Having a roster with plenty of veteran experience, the Huskies look primed to make another run in 2025-2026. Head coach Lucas McDonald is excited to get on the court with his team and try to make it a memorable campaign.

While the Huskies will not be at full strength out of the gate due to football season, McDonald is looking forward to tipoff and getting another season underway.

“We’re excited to get going,” McDonald said. “We’ve been working hard to try to improve and get better. We’ve been doing a lot in the offseason with our conditioning, weights and skill work. We’re not where we need to be yet, but we’re working to get there and get back to where we want to be as far as some of our goals and aspirations.”

McDonald acknowledged the success of the Huskies’ run to the Final Four and how it’s impacted the expectations of the program and provided motivation to return to that level each season.

“That group two years ago set the bar pretty high, set a pretty big standard,” McDonald said. “We’re trying to strive to get to that standard again. That’s where our focus is and worrying about things we can control and what we need to do to continue to get better and to give ourselves a chance to be successful day in and day out.”

Helena has an extensive group of seniors, one of them being Drew Davis, who was part of the Final Four team. Davis has given a lot of attention to mental growth during the offseason, as well as continuing to build chemistry with the team.

“I’ve been working on my mental part of the game,” Davis said. “Sometimes I’ll get a little down on my mental side, so I’ve been working on that. I’ve been playing with these guys for a while, so I feel like we’ll have a good connection. It should be a fun year.”

The Huskies want to avoid getting ahead of themselves by looking toward things at the end of the season. McDonald has challenged his players to take things one day at a time and get ready to compete in each and every game.

“It’s giving ourselves the best opportunity to be successful every night,” McDonald said on what a successful season looks like for Helena this year. “Winning the area is really important because you get to host. Hosting that tournament for us is huge, then having a chance to hopefully win the area.”

Getting the job done in area play is important, as having the opportunity to host a sub-region game would be an advantage.

“These guys got to experience what it’s like to go on the road for a sub-region game last year and play in a raucous environment,” McDonald said. “It was a great game, great environment, but we’d rather have that environment at home.”

Coming out on top in the area will be easier said than done, as Class 6A, Area 8 has no shortage of competition. Helena will take on Chelsea—who won the area title last season—Pelham and Spain Park.

McDonald and company know what it takes, however. This is a group capable of competing with hard-nosed opponents. As long as they can stick to their game plan and work together, McDonald likes the Huskies’ chances of being a competitive group.

“We’re going to face challenges, those teams know us and we know them,” McDonald said. “That’s what it comes down to in area play, who executes best. When somebody takes the first option away, when somebody takes away the second option, can you respond? Can you flow into the third option? Everybody does a great job scouting, so it’s no secret what everybody’s going to do by the time we get to area play. It’s gonna be about who can execute their game plan the best.”

Despite having a different look this season from a personal perspective, the Huskies are going to keep a similar objective on the floor and maintain a similar style of play to what they have done in recent seasons.

Some adjustments will be made, but hard-nosed defense will still be the name of the game for the Huskies throughout the 2024-2025 season.

“It’s not going to be a drastic change, we’re still gonna get up and try to guard you,” McDonald said. “We’re still going to do what we do defensively. We’re going to try to make it more difficult to score. We did that this summer. We may sprinkle in a little more zone here or there, do some different things that may give us what I feel is the best advantage. Offensively, it’s gonna be a little bit different, but it’s gonna be pretty much the same as what we’ve done.”

Despite having multiple new faces on the varsity roster this season and three new members of its starting lineup, McDonald is confident in the foundation that has been laid in recent seasons and believes 2025-2026 could be a special season for Helena.

Helena opens the 2025-2026 season on the road against the Hewitt-Trussville Huskies at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18.