Lake Mills boys’ basketball head coach Kyle Menke has described the 2008-09 season as one of his most enjoyable, but it certainly didn’t start that way.

Menke was named the North Iowa Conference Coach of the Year and helped the Bulldogs turnaround a season that looked headed for disaster.

Lake Mills started the season 1-6, but a strong January turned that around and the Bulldogs turned into a top team in the conference.

“The credit goes to my players,” Menke said. “They really worked hard, improved, and without hardworking, talented boys awards like this are not possible.”

Lake Mills was a young team this season and didn’t return a single starter, in fact the closest thing they had to a returning starter was junior Chris Throne who was the ninth man last season.

Throne and the rest of the Lake Mills team matured through the course of the season to finish third in the North Iowa Conference and rattled off six straight wins to move above .500 and scored an upset win over conference leader Forest City.

“That one week where we beat Forest City and North Iowa on the road and then North Sentral Kossuth on the road — that was probably the high point of the season there for us,” Menke said. “We really hit our stride with those wins.”

This was the first season the conference has selected a coach of the year and Menke said it was an honor to be chosen as the first recipient.

The Bulldogs lost nearly 90 percent of their scoring from last season and needed to rely on players taking on new roles. The process was slow in beginning, but as the team got more experience, its confidence grew.

“The experience factor was just a big key,” Menke said. “As the boys had more time on the floor and really got used to the speed and intensity of varsity basketball, they really started to build confidence in themselves. Like anything, once you get that confidence you can get on a nice roll and we were able to that.”

Menke cited the holiday break as an important part of the season for the team as it got a chance to regroup after little success in the first month of play.

Lake Mills focused on its defense in the second half of the season and were able to grind out some close victories. An added emphasis on defense was a contrast from the season before where the Bulldogs were big on getting out in transition and keeping an up-tempo pace.

In addition to Throne, senior Jim Adams played a strong role on the team as he emerged as an all-conference player after rarely seeing varsity time last season. Adams was second on the team in scoring with 9.9 points per game.

Sophomore Marcus Gaskill and others also provided a boost for the team as it started to feel more comfortable playing at the varsity level.

“The thing that we really stress in our program is balance,” Menke said. “We want to have multiple kids that can step up and get the job done on any given night. This year when we really hit our stride and started playing our best basketball that is what you were seeing.”

Next season looks like it has the potential to be a very good one for Lake Mills with nearly everyone returning and a year of varsity experience under its belt.

“Next year we will not take anyone by surprise,” Menke said. “We will be one of the most experienced teams in the conference. That’s a fun place to be. It’s fun to know that there are expectations. We will have to work very, very hard to achieve our goals next season.”