Photo courtesy of Lara Plaisance

The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Boys Basketball Team is continuing to improve year in and year out, recently appearing in their first state championship game this season.

The Tigers have been steadily increasing their win total since the 2022-23 season, when they marked 11 victories. Since then, ADM has had three consecutive years winning at least 20 games, as the tally rises each season. For the 2023-24 year, the Tigers went 20-4, but lost to Bondurant-Farrar 60-58 in the Class 3A Regional Championship, just missing out on the state tournament.

However, the next season, ADM concluded 22-5 and was able to break a 13-year drought of the state tournament, when they defeated Pella in the regional championship. Not only that, the Tigers won their Quarterfinal game 59-53 versus Storm Lake, before falling 66-57 to Clear Lake to end their season.

This year, ADM upped their total wins again, finishing 24-3 on the season, appearing in the state tournament for a second straight time, and advancing all the way to the Class 3A Championship contest against Ballard, where they were beaten 43-39 in overtime. Senior Trey Bryte is now the Tigers all-time assists leader with 374, and senior Hudson Lorensen has the most points in school history with 1,658. 

ADM Head Coach Trevor Mickelson outlines that the team came into this year with expectations of winning a championship, and although that didn’t happen, he believes his players answered the challenge extremely well.

“It was a fantastic year. There was some adversity, some ups and downs, but to get to the point where we had and be that close and give ourselves a chance to become state champs was something hopefully these guys are very proud of. I know our community is proud of them, I know our coaching staff is proud of them, their parents and so forth. And they left absolutely everything on the table, and I think had a pretty memorable five-day stretch down at the state tournament. There was a lot of excitement. Everyone is bummed that we weren’t able to win that final game, but just real proud of our guys all year.”

Along with Bryte and Lorensen, the Tigers will be losing four other seniors, including Hudson Shull, Hayden Dohlman, Reece Strittmatter, and Joshua Randol.