THOMPSON FALLS — Bryson LeCoure is the first boys basketball player in Thompson Falls history to score 1,000 points in a career.
If that's news to you, don't be shocked. It was also news to LeCoure himself.
“I actually didn't really know about it,” LeCoure said. "I needed six points and I scored six points when I played Loyola down in (Missoula), and I didn't know that. And then the next game we had a home game and coach (Jake Mickelson) had actually let me know in the locker room.”
People who have been around LeCoure for years, like Thompson Falls head coach Jake Mickelson, say the talented senior reached 1,000 points by playing his own game.
“He's a very humble kid, too, so it's nothing that he even mentioned or probably even knew about,” Mickelson said. “So, I think that's what made it even better with just the type of kid he is.”
Mickelson has coached LeCoure for all four years of his basketball career, and now that he is reaching the end of that career, Mickelson said coaching a player like Bryson has been a privilege.
"I obviously didn't make any of the baskets, I just want put him in position to be able to do what he's worked so hard for,” Mickelson said. “So, I think we're all just really lucky that we got to share some time with him here, and (LeCoure) sets a good example for the younger guys coming up through."
LeCoure credits those younger guys and the rest of his teammates the most for his success.
“I don't really think I could have done it without them. Obviously, they're a big part of it,” LeCoure said. “They've believed in me, they've dumped all this time into me and helping me develop my game and I couldn't have done it without them.”
After high school, LeCoure plans on playing football and studying business or kinesiology at the University of Montana Western, but his focus is still on this basketball season and what his team can achieve in the later half.
"Obviously make it to state. We haven't made it to state, I haven't made it to state in my four years here,” Lecoure said. “I think that's the end goal, get to state and see what we can do at state."
Thompson Falls plays its next game Feb. 5 at Plains.
