For the third consecutive year the Powell High School boys’ basketball team will have a new starting lineup heading into the 2025-26 season, looking to make a fifth straight state tournament while bringing some experience back from last year’s team.

The two most experienced players returning for the Panthers are a pair of seniors in Nathan Preator and Taeson Schultz, who both started last season. Both were the first options off the bench with Preator inserted into the starting lineup the final month and a half of the season.

“We have a couple guys that played really big roles for us last year that will be starting,” coach Mike Heny said. “We have Nate and Taeson who got a bulk of those minutes for us last year … He’s (Preator) a tough matchup for anybody. I don’t think there’s anybody in 3A that’s as fast as him.”

Preator was the fourth leading scorer a year ago at 7.3 a game and tied for the team lead in steals while Schultz was the fifth leading scorer at 6.3 points but made the most 3-pointers on the team at 40.

Additional seniors who saw significant time off the bench last year were Landon Hyde and Abel Teten, while juniors Brady Harvey, Kason Sherman and Eli Dallman all received playing time.

“Kason has been playing fantastic. He had a really good summer. Brady is ready to step into that role. Then we’ve got some other juniors that we’ll have to see where they fit,” Heny said. “Sawyer Wormald, Cody Fisher and Eli, early on in the year, that’s where we’ll figure out what guys’ strengths are and if they can defend at that varsity level and be strong with the ball against varsity level defense. These early tournaments are really good to see where those guys fit.”

Along with those players, one senior who was unable to play a year ago but could see time on the floor is Caden Nelson.

While there will be a number of new faces on the floor this year, Heny feels the Panthers will be able to take advantage of their speed and shooting to compete with teams while needing to figure out some difficulties down low.

“We feel really good about the guys we have this year. We’re going to look a little bit different,” Heny said. “We don’t have much inside presence like we’ve had the last couple of years … We’re going to have to guard the other team’s bigs by committee a little bit. We’re going to have to do some different things defensively too to help with those matchups when we do have a height disadvantage. But that also gives us the advantage on the perimeter, and we’ve got a lot of guys that can make a lot of outside shots.”

The defending champion Lovell Bulldogs are expected to lead the charge again this year in 3A as they return significant experience from last year, while Douglas is expected to be the top contender in the east.

“It’s definitely going to be a tough quadrant for us,” Heny said. “We’re definitely going to see some good teams. Our quad is going to be a gauntlet … We’re going to have to play well every night and hope some things bounce our way and see if we can win two before we lose two at regionals and get to state to give ourselves a shot.”

Starting the season Powell heads on the road to Lander for two weekends before the winter break, starting this weekend with games against Newcastle, Rawlins and Pinedale on Friday and Saturday.

“They’ll (Pinedale) be tough. They’ll be like us … So that’ll be a good test to see how we match up with them on the west side,” Heny said. “We haven’t played Newcastle in such a long time. I saw them once last year at the opening tournament and they were pretty young and scrappy … Rawlins, you just never know. They’re going to play hard and it’ll be a good weekend.”

In addition to that opening weekend, the Panthers will see a precursor to a significant change next year, as Heny said that the state officials are encouraging teams to use the shot clock in all nonconference games this year before it becomes official for every game next year.

“They want us to use it as much as possible so the people who are running it can be familiar with it this year before we hit next year,” Heny said. “We’re gonna roll it out … Our pace won’t be impacted. It’ll be those end of clock situations that we’ll have to really kind of look at.”