Gwinn's Mastin Love, left, gets a clean block on Negaunee’s Jakson Sager as Sager attempts a short jumper in the second quarter of an MHSAA Division 3 district tournament game played at the Modeltowners gym on March 11. (Photo coutesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Editor’s note: With the start-and-stop of winter sports seasons this year, The Mining Journal is publishing high school basketball team previews from Marquette and Alger counties over a number of days. This story was written early this month.

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GWINN — Going from coaching girls basketball to boys basketball may seem a difficult task, but for Gwinn head coach Ben Olsen, he at least gets to stay at the same school.

After years of being at the helm of the girls program, Olsen will take over the boys team from previous head coach Jim Finkbeiner, and although switching teams at a school may be an adjustment, he said he’s used to it.

“I’ve always adjusted,” Olsen said recently. “With the girls, I’ve ran three different offenses the last four years. So we always kind of look at what we’ve got coming in and we try to use whatever we think is the best offense.

“And I’m using a different offense again this year, so it’s a lot of learning on my part. A lot of researching, I use a lot of videos, I go on the internet a lot of the time to really research and know the ins and outs of what we’re doing and I think what we’ve got kind of planned for this year is going to be really beneficial to our boys.

“So I’m always adjusting. I think moving from girls to boys, I did (coach) JV boys when I first kind of got into high school. I’ve got some familiarity with it. But yeah, it’s different and I’m slowly adjusting to the speed and the athleticism. The boys pick up things a little bit faster than the girls, so there’s obviously an adaptation with that.”

Looking at this year’s roster, Olsen says his team is not only experienced, but also deep, so that gives them a boost to start the season.

“We’ve got a pretty well-rounded roster,” he said. “We’ve got some bigs who can step out and stretch the floor a little bit, which is always something good. You’re going to keep the defense honest that way and I’ve got some senior guards, James Harnick and Mastin Love are some of the guards that we’re going to rely on. They’ve been on the varsity for three years now and you’ve got Tristan Jancsi and Reid Hill, who are kind of the bigs that we’re going to be using who are also seniors.

“So we’ve got a pretty senior-laden group that have kind of been in a lot of different battles. We’re going to obviously lean on the seniors like a lot of teams do, and then I think we can do the inside-outside game and I think we’ve got the ability to when we need to rely on post presence and scoring inside, I think we have that ability and if we need the guards to step up, I think we have that.

“So I’m pretty excited about the roster. It’s deeper than what I’m normally used to. On the girls side, I usually only have seven, eight, nine girls. Right now, I’m looking at a roster of, I think I’ve got 14 kids out right now, which is something that I’ve never had on the girls side.

“So that takes a little bit of … you’re adjusting with that as well, but that’s a good adjustment I think. The more kids you have, obviously, the more competitive practices are going to be and the more competitive practices are, usually the better team.

“Yeah, I’m excited about that. I’m coming into a good situation. Finkbeiner is still there. He built a pretty good base with this program and I’m excited to work with him and see where we can go with this.”

With all the delays and postponements this year, most teams in the Upper Peninsula are just happy to be on the court again and Olsen said that the Modeltowners feel the same way.

“I think the kids just want to be in the gym,” he said. “We got the OK that we could start Saturday (a few weeks before the statewide pause) and we did an 8 to 9 (a.m.) morning conditioning practice and then we came back later and did like a 4 to 6 (p.m.) practice in the evening.

“And normally, I think you’d have parents kind of up in arms and kids kind of up in arms like ‘We want to get this done in one (practice),’ but there was really zero complaints and I think the reason that there was really zero complaints is people are just happy to be back in the gym. They’re happy to be back to some normalcy.

“We were that way with football. The kids just wanted to play. Obviously with football, there was a little different dynamic there with Coach (Dion) Brown, but with basketball here, I think it’s the same thing. I think they just want to get in the gym and like I said, I’ve got a lot of seniors.

“And there’s something to be said, play like it’s your last game. We kind of joked about that during football. You used to know when your last game was coming. In today’s world, it feels like it could be shut down tomorrow. These kids might have played their last game last year without ever knowing about it.

“So I think there’s just a genuine happiness of being in the gym. Almost win or lose, I think the kids are just happy to be there.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.