DEFENSE FIRST
Clare boys basketball off to 7-4 start
They’re going to hang their hat on defense, partly because they have to and partly because it’s what that head coach Byron Schunk demands.
Through the first 11 games of the 202324 regular season the Clare High School boys basketball team has been stingy as can be on the defensive end as evidenced by Wednesday’s 64-21 conference road win at rival Farwell.
For the season the Pioneers have played stellar defense as they’ve held opponents to just 44 points per game. This kind of defense is needed too as Clare has averaged just 46 points per game on the offensive side. With Wednesday’s win the Pioneers are now 7-4 overall and 4-2 in Jack Pine Conference play.
Long-time mid-michigan basketball coach Byron Schunk, who was the head coach at Coleman about a decade ago before moving to an assistant role at Mid Michigan College for the past seven or eight years, has always been a defensive-minded coach dating back decades
and so far this season he’s liked how his Pioneers have played on that end.
“Defense is what we do every day,” said Schunk, who replaced long-time Clare coach Matt Alexander last summer. “We’re 7-4 so we’ve kind of met our expectations. We don’t have a lot of what you would call ‘basketball players,’ but they go to work every single day. Their work ethic has been great.”
One year ago the Pioneers went 9-14 overall after going 19-3 overall and winning the JPC via a perfect 14-0 conference record in 2021-22. In the past 12 seasons the Pioneers have had nine winning seasons, albeit a district title has been kind of elusive dating back a decade.
On paper Clare’s senior class of Ritchie Montgomery, Miles Haggart, Ryan Rodenbo and Nic Porter lead the way. Junior defensive stopper Ryan Louch is probably
the best overall athlete on the team while Jayden Arthur, who quarterbacked the football team, and 6-foot-3 Chase Randall both bring a lot of athleticism to the fold. Freshman Dane Alexander has also played beyond his years thus far.
For the season the Pioneers opened with three-straight wins before falling to Sanford-meridian and defending conference champion Shepherd in early December. The Pioneers have since won three of their last four post-christmas.
Going forward Clare will likely be hard-pressed to make a run at the conference crown because Sanford-meridian appears to be the best team in the JPC thus far.
Yet, making a postseason run could happen if the Pioneers continue to plug away and work hard.
Time will tell.
Montgomery led Clare with 17 points Wednesday while Randall had 14 and Alexander 11.
James Segraves-grant paced Farwell with eight.
Clare is scheduled to host Harrison on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.