Once just along for ride, Shultz now leads

Sandpoint High’s Brian Shultz has finally received his chance to play.

And, oh, what he’s done with it.

Shultz, a 6-foot-3 senior wing, spent last season stuck on the bench of a fine Bulldogs squad that earned its first trip to state since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.

Of course, he would have rather played than ride the pine, but Shultz maintained a positive attitude and said he was just pleased to go along for the ride on a team that graduated four out of five starters.

Now all he’s doing is scoring 16.5 points per game, second in the Inland Empire League, and pulling down a team-high seven rebounds per game.

“Actually, it wasn’t that frustrating,” Shultz said of SHS’ 2004-2005 campaign. “We made it to state for the first time in 27 years, and I was just really happy to be a part of it.

“We were winning, and I loved it.”

After talking to Shultz, it would be easy to nominate him for the IEL’s “Least Cocky Star Player” award, if there were such a thing.

“I have been doing pretty well and I’m kind of surprised,” he said. “I honestly don’t know how to explain it. It’s kind of weird and it’s hard to explain, because it’s totally unexpected.

“I give a lot of the credit to the players around me.”

Speaking of Shultz and the players around him, Sandpoint (8-9 overall) finds itself next to last in the IEL at 3-6.

“It’s been a lot harder, because we did lose a lot of talent (to graduation),” Shultz said. “Even though we’ve been losing some games, I’ve for the most part been happy with how we’ve played.

“We’ve been coming together and we’re starting to finally get into kind of like what we were like last year and kind of getting into that rhythm, so hopefully that will carry over into districts. In districts, everyone is 0-0 and anything can happen, and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Individual accolades are bound to come, but Shultz said he’s more interested in the team variety.

“Honestly, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to (make All-IEL),” he said. “But it’s not really a goal of mine, because at the beginning of the season it was not even something that I thought about.

“At this point, I just want to win – I’m a senior, and I want to make it back to state.”

Shultz said he plans on attending the University of Idaho this fall and will major in education.

“I don’t have any aspirations of playing basketball in college,” he said. “I want to become a teacher – a history teacher, actually.”