BIGFORK — Last season, the Bigfork girls basketball team made a big splash in its first year back at the Class A level.
After winning the Class B championship in 2023, the Valkyries made it all the way to the Class A state final in 2024 before falling to Billings Central.
Bigfork coach Cortnee Gunlock reflected on the rare achievement.
“Class A, there's some great teams, there's some really good teams that come back probably with full strength like they had last year,” Gunlock said. “So, I'm just proud of what we did and had two losses last year and that's substantial going up one class.”
Now with a year of experience under their belt, Gunlock says this year will look different for the team with only three experienced players returning to the roster.
“We are significantly young and we got a lot of growing to do and all these girls need to learn our program and our system,” Gunlock said. so our goal is to continue to grow as the season grows and to be the best we can be at the end of the season.”
However, among the returning players is Braeden Gunlock, coach Gunlock’s daughter, who recently committed to play at the next level at BYU.
Braeden Gunlock likes to lead by example and hopes the work she puts in will help the younger players develop their game.
“Really just 100% effort like everybody's giving it their all, they all want to come in compete, We are definitely a competitive program so we expect that from everybody,” Braeden Gunlock said.
With a young team, the coaches are teaching the younger players the basics to help them learn their roles.
Senior Keni Wade says the players are quickly figuring out the team’s identity.
“Coach Cortnee always talks about how our defense runs our offense and I think that's very important because if our defense is good, the offense will come,” Wade said. “So I think that's more of what our style is going to be throughout the season.”
The team’s standard is set by the Gunlock family, and with a team led by Braeden and her younger sister Paeten, the team gets to see what a winning mentality looks like every day.
“She pushes me and my sister a little bit harder because she knows what we're capable of,” Braeden Gunlock said. “It's so much fun getting to play with both of them. playing with my sister, It's unbelievable couldn't be more excited.”
