An extremely busy, important summer for the Powell Panther boys’ basketball team led to growth for the defending state champions, who need to replace six seniors from an undefeated championship run.

The team attended three different team camps and an individual home camp at the end of June to improve their skills.

Over Memorial Day weekend the team attended a camp at Montana State University Billings, in the middle of June the team went to Black Hills State in Spearfish, South Dakota, then went back to Montana to compete at a camp in Lockwood before ending with a camp at home at the end of June.

“When you lose six seniors, you have a whole new group of guys that have not played a lot of varsity together,” coach Mike Heny said. “I wanted to provide that opportunity and for the most part we had our top nine guys that went to all of them.”

Trying to find a new lineup heading into the winter, Heny said the camps provided him a good opportunity to figure out what the team could run and be successful at once the season rolls around.

“It was a great chance to get a feel for where we’re at and what we need to work on,” he said. “It gave me a chance to see what we can run and what I am going to need to do differently next year with this group as we adjust to different skill sets and personnel.”

He said the team was able to play approximately 30 games over the month of camps, giving him a good opportunity to see where the team is going heading into the season so they are not trying to figure it out once November rolls around.

Having all of his expected top nine guys is a luxury Heny has not had in recent years, as baseball does not allow for some of his players to attend as the two programs agree to not mix in their respective offseasons.

“It was nice. You can’t lie and say it’s not nice to have all of them. We would’ve loved to have Brock (Johnson), Trey (Stenerson), Jhett (Schwahn) and Cade (Queen) with us all the time but the reality was that they were focusing on baseball and that’s good. Kids competing in athletics as long as they are doing something, as a coach, you root for them and cheer them on. This year coming off the run we had, it was really important because we didn’t have any guys playing baseball, so that we did play a lot together,” Heny said.

The summer camp flurry has come to an end for the Panthers, with the home camp capping off the important offseason for Powell as the team will look to defend its title next season.

“This was our last major thing of the summer,” Heny said. “We will have a few open gyms but it’s that last chance to push through some fundamental stuff and work on some shooting. Hopefully turn them loose so they continue on their own before school cranks back up.”