Belle Plaine’s boys’ varsity basketball team makes its regular season debut Monday night at North Tama to start a busy first week. Coach Justin Northrop’s crew has some key returning players, but has some big holes to fill as well.
Leading scorer and rebounder from last year, Chris Janss, returns for his senior season. Last year, six Plainsman players scored 100 points or more. Three of them graduated. Keegan DeMeulenaere, who had 115 points and 82 rebounds, is a returning starter. The sixth player, junior Garrett Rollins, went down with a leg injury in football that required surgical repair. He is lost for this basketball season, but hopes to be back for a strong senior year. He had 104 points and 100 rebounds last season.
“Practice has been going about like expected,” Norrthrop said. “We are not in playing shape yet, but working to get that way. The kids have responded well to what we have asked them to do and are working really hard each day.
“We have Chris and Keegan who are returning starters and John Long and Seivon Steward who saw action at the varsity level. Ben Ehlen also saw a little time in some games, so our varsity game experience is a little limited but we have a lot of kids that have played a lot of good basketball.
“Losing Garrett was a big blow. He is a presence inside that we can not replace. He worked really hard this summer and got a lot better. Football has not been very good to us between losing Phillip last year and Garrett this year. I know he is really missing it and working hard in rehab to get back next year.
“Keota will definitely be the class of the conference. They return a lot of size and experience. They played in the Iowa City summer league with us and looked really good. Lynnville Sully also will be very good. Coach Hawthoorn does a great job every year and they will be tough to match up with because of their size. After those two teams it is probably wide open for everyone else.
“We had a good summer in the IC League and a couple team camps that we went to. The Seniors and Juniors have been running the same system for a couple of years so the learning curve is quicker than normal. We also had a few kids go to some individual camps and had a number of kids go up to Wartburg for the Snow Valley Camp.
“We will have a lot of athletic kids that play really hard. Hopefully, once they get going it will be a really fun team to watch.”
Last year, the Plainsmen finished seventh in the SICL Conference with a 10-10 record. Keota ran away from the rest of the conference, posting a 19-1 record. The Eagles return their top four scorers and rebounders this season. HLV was second with a 17-3 record, but the Warriors were hit hard by graduation and return one of their top five scorers and rebounders. With the return of two of their top five scorers and rebounders, it’s little wonder why the Hawks are expected to perhaps do as well as they did last year, when they were third in the conference with a 15-4 record.
The Plainsmen open the season at North Tama on Monday and at North Mahaska on Tuesday before hosting BGM on Friday. The Plainsmen will get their first look at the projected top teams in the conference in the same week. Lynnville-Sully comes to town on Tuesday, Dec. 15 and Keota will be here on Friday, Dec. 18.
District play begins on Feb. 15. Belle Plaine has been assigned to a district that also includes BGM, Cardinal, Iowa Valley, Mid-Prairie, Pekin, Sigourney and Van Buren. The district final is scheduled for Feb. 23 in Ottumwa.

Plainsman basketball
Date Opponent
Nov. 30 @ North Tama
Dec. 1 @ North Mahaska
Dec. 4 BGM
Dec. 11 Montezuma
Dec. 14 English Valleys
Dec. 15 Lynnville-Sully
Dec. 18 Keota
Dec. 21 @ Tri-County
Jan. 5 Iowa Valley
Jan. 8 @ HLV
Jan. 11 @ English Valleys
Jan. 12 North Mahaska
Jan. 15 @ BGM
Jan. 18 @ Sigourney
Jan. 26 @ Montezuma
Jan. 29 @ Lynnville-Sully
Feb. 2 @ Keota
Feb. 5 Tri-County
Feb. 8 HLV
Feb. 9 @ Iowa Valley
Feb. 12 Sigourney