St. Scholastica Men’s Basketball Adjusting Nicely to New Head Coach

CSS is currently 5-8 on the year, which is two wins better than their 2023-2024 mark.

DULUTH, Minn.- The St. Scholastica men’s basketball team ushered in a new era at the beginning of the season with Christian Butler taking the helm as the interim head coach.

With already 13 games under their belt, the Saints have surpassed last year’s win total.

CSS is currently 5-8 on the year, which is two wins better than their 2023-2024 mark.

Interim head coach Christian Butler says it was a slow start to the year as the team began the season at 0-4. But, a team meeting after that helped get everyone back on the same page.

“You know it was a team bonding event. We got everyone in the locker room and guys started opening up. They were not afraid to hide the truth and spoke to each other honestly and openly. Within that moment, we turned things around. It was a brutal first four starts but ever since Northland we’ve been clicking as a team,” said Butler.

With 20 players on their roster, only a fourth of the team are juniors and seniors. That includes Port Wing native and guard Koy Nelson, who says the team’s recent surge has brought up the energy as well.

“We’re getting our culture back I think. We’re starting to come to practice everyday with a sense of purpose. We know that we’re not getting much respect around the league so we have that chip on our shoulder to keep working and get the goal we want. Just play hard everyday and play like it’s your last. I feel like we come in everyday, we’re going to focus on defense, we usually focus on that. Once that side of the ball helps, our offense will start flowing and hopefully make a run there,” said Nelson.

We’ll have much more on Nelson and the Saints in this week’s Northern Star. That airs on Wednesday night at 9 PM.