TWIN BRIDGES — Twin Bridges heads to Butte for the Western C divisional tournament, and Nate Konen leads the way inside for the Falcons.
“Nate’s role is huge. Nate doesn’t get a lot of the publicity and he’s not one of our guys that’s scoring 20-plus points a game,” said Twin Bridges coach Josh Keller.
The Twin Bridges boys basketball team is among the Western C favorites to move on the state tournament. A big reason why is Nate Konen, who holds down in the paint behind the Falcons’ incredible perimeter players.
“I get rebounds and I have to kind of use my body to my advantage and out-muscle people. Football helps me a lot with that — I play middle linebacker in football — so that’s what I do, is I go and use my body,” said Konen, a junior center.
Whether it’s on the gridiron or the hardwood, Konen always leads by example.
“Nate’s such a great leader on the court and off the court,” Keller said. “You know, he’s the first guy in the weight room, he makes sure everybody’s in here working hard, lifting. And he just does a great job leading us that way.”
It almost seemed Konen was destined to be a leader at Twin Bridges. The Konen family has a solid track record of athletic excellence for the Falcons.
“His sister Hannah Konen was a great player, and then when I first got here I had Nolan Konen, who was a senior for me and one of the most absolute pleasures to coach, just a great kid and a great leader, and I’ve seen that go all the way down through the family,” said Keller.
When you look at Nate Konen, his size and athleticism alone should tell you that football is his next step after he graduates in 2020. His dad played football at Carroll College and rodeoed at Montana Western. But with a desire for a future in the engineering field, there’s one place, in particular, the younger Konen has his eyes focused.
“I want to be an engineer, so I think if I’m gonna play football it’ll probably be for Montana Tech, since they have a good engineering program,” Nate Konen said.
Luckily for Falcon fans, Konen has one more year to leave his Konen legacy.
