Introductions over, Behrens goes after wins

Being the new kid in school is never easy, but it seems to have gone pretty well for Bonners Ferry’s Spenser Behrens.

All Behrens did after transferring last year from St. John, Wash., was help the Badgers to the first district basketball title in school history.

Now a junior, Behrens is leading Bonners in scoring and rebounding as the Badgers sit atop the Intermountain League standings.

With the feeling-out period over, all that’s left is the hunt for hardware.

“I was accepted pretty well as the new kid, which was nice,” said Behrens, who has improved his outside game this season and averages about 14 points and eight rebounds. “This year, they know my style and how I play.

“I think this year we’ve jelled together more as a team – it’s five guys working together instead of three guys working together.”

That familiarity has translated to a higher level of play, and though Bonners does have five losses, all have come to bigger schools.

“We have a tough schedule early in the season, as you can see by our record,” Behrens said. “We only play down maybe once or twice, and that’s how it’s been last year and this year.

“But when league comes around, you can really tell how much you get from playing a tougher schedule early on – I mean, Kellogg is ranked in state because of their record, but they’re not playing the competition we are.”

Behrens brings to Bonners a bit of Washington “B” swagger.

“Just the mentality of basketball in the B’s and in St. John was way different. I mean everybody played basketball,” Behrens said. “If you didn’t play basketball there, people didn’t really know you.

“It was every practice, every second you were on the court was 100 percent.”

“I think, by the end of the season, we’ll be coming together to the point that we’ll go as far as we’ll let ourselves go,” Behrens said.

How far he can go individually remains to be seen, but Behrens is logging the miles he hopes will take him to the next level in the fall of 2007.

“I’m always playing,” said Behrens, who sets aside his summers for the Northwest Cougars, a Washington-Idaho-Montana club team. “I think that this season I realized that basketball is pretty much what I’m going to want to do.

“So I’m going to take football season off next year to pursue basketball year-round.”