Tuesday afternoon’s freshman home game featuring the hometown Blazers playing host to the visiting Elks of Elk Rapids wrapped up the season for Coach Guggemos’ team.

The first period was the back and forth struggle everyone expected. The Elks full-court press caused early problem for the Blazers, but a quick Goog timeout got the team back on track. The Blazers showed some aggressive defense of their own and after a slow start they ended the first on a great run that included a 12-10 lead.

But in the second period, the Elks did to Kalkaska what Kalkaska has done to several of it opponents this year: shut them down with strong defense while attacking the hoop with aggressive ball movement. Kalkaska failed to score in the second period and the Elks started to create separation.

The third period momentum just continued for Elk Rapids and they closed out the second-half pressuring with their strong defense and controlling the glass, while keeping Kalkaska off balance. But the boys in blue played hard, showed great pride even in a tough loss, and demonstrated that they are a team ready for the next level of play.

While the shortened 2020-2021 season wasn’t what anyone desired, it was good to see the boys play some games and begin the program development under new varsity coach Lyle Cheevers. These young freshman are strong and athletic, and they will certainly play a future role in Kalkaska basketball moving forward.