Ryan Ladika/MDN Preston Kraft, left, dribbles around a South Prairie defender during the Aggies’ Dec. 17 win.

Less than a year after it was eliminated in the Region 6 quarterfinals by the Bishop Ryan Lions, the Velva Aggies boys’ basketball squad entered its Dec. 11 season-opener optimistic and determined to finish what it started last March.

“For a team that hasn’t been on the varsity floor a lot, we had a good summer camp,” Velva head coach Isaac Sondrol said prior to the season’s beginning. “I think they’re ready to get out of practice and for me to be done conditioning them so they can play some different faces.”

The Aggies were indeed ready. Velva rattled off four consecutive wins to begin the new season, including a trio of victories over Parshall, South Prairie and Surrey to claim the 12th Velva Invitational Tournament title in program history, and the team’s first since 2018.

Preston Kraft’s 22-point showing against the Braves, dubbed his “coming out party” by Sondrol after the junior drilled six three-point shots, and Kaden Chadwick’s 19-point night in the paint against the Royals highlighted the three-win invite for the Aggies.

“It’s a good start, tomorrow night’s a really good test, next week we have a really good test, and then we have Thompson over the Christmas break,” Sondrol said following Velva’s semifinal win. “We have a lot of good teams on our schedule, so it’s nice to get off to a hot start.”

The Aggies experienced growing pains not unexpected by Sondrol and his staff following the invite, stumbling to a 1-2 mark in their next three games against Harvey/Wells County, Thompson and Glenburn spanning Dec. 21-Jan. 4.

The lack of meaningful varsity experience among the group has left plenty of room for growth among the Aggies’ new group, as the program returned only one starter and graduated seven seniors from a year ago.

“Luckily during football, they got to deal with it, losing those guys in the fall,” Sondrol added. “This winter we’ve already had a couple of guys emerge as leaders. We’ve really been working on communication and building a couple of leaders the first couple of weeks here, that’s big for us.”

Ben Schepp and Kyle Sandy have joined Chadwick and Kraft as the newest leaders on the floor for the Aggies, as all are averaging at least 8.4 points per game with at least six appearances in the team’s first seven contests.

Chadwick’s 10 points per game thus far are good for the team-lead in that category and are just off his 2020-21 pace that saw the then-junior produce 11 upon the season’s conclusion.

“He’ll anchor us in the middle,” Sondrol said of his 6’6″ center. “(He) came on better at the end of last year; he struggled a little bit during the season. He’s really been a rock-solid kid there.”

The collective athleticism the team displays is unlike any other group he has had the opportunity to coach, Sondrol said, pointing especially to his players’ well-rounded abilities.

“All of them have a couple of things they do really well. In that group of 10 or 11, I think there are about eight or nine who will really do a good job of just knowing what they do well, doing that, and trying not to do more,” the fifth-year head coach said. “That’s kind of cool, we have a group that really understands their roles and how they can contribute to the team.”

The Lions were a postseason hurdle the Aggies could not clear last season, but the team remained proud of its Region 6 tournament appearance and the obstacles it overcame, including injuries and sickness through which players fought, to advance that far.

A Dec. 9 preseason team meeting produced the group’s goals for this year, among them a regional return to set the stage for an even deeper postseason run.

“If you can get past that first day then anything can happen,” Sondrol added. “Get to regionals and get out of that first round, and then you have a shot.”