(Photo: PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON SILVERNALE)

The groundwork for the Choteau boys’ basketball team’s recent dominance was laid many years ago.

It was all the way back in first grade that Dylan Pannabecker, Derrek Durocher and Collin Achenbach took the court together for the very first time.

Standing only a few feet tall, the task of getting the ball above the rim, let alone making the shot, presented certain challenges for these future Choteau stars.

“It took about every muscle in my body but I could barely get it there,” Achenbach said.

Said Durocher: “They had some pretty small hoops back in those days.”

In these days, Durocher and the Bulldogs are back-to-back Class B state champions, winners of 52 games in a row.

“You’re only as good as the players you got,” said Choteau head coach Matt Luedtke, the former Montana Gatorade Player of the Year at Ronan.

And Luedtke had some pretty good ones.

That selfless trio – Pannabecker, Durocher and Achenbach – is featured on this year’s Great Falls Tribune Super-State Team, which includes Class AA standouts Brendan Howard, Aaron Weidenaar and RayQuan Evans; Class A’s Dane Warp and Jacob Hadley; Class B’s Trase LeTexier; and Class C’s Brandon The Boy.

While Choteau’s basketball pipeline was born in elementary school, the strive for excellence may have begun back in February 2014.

Pannabecker, Durocher and Achenbach were all sophomores, and the upstart Bulldogs were still making a name for themselves.

They never made it to the state tournament that season, instead losing to Malta in a challenge game, finishing at 20-6 overall.

“That kind of fueled the fire and propelled them into what we accomplished the last two years here,” Luedtke said. “As talented as these kids are, the thing that sticks out to me is their ability to play together as a team.”

Choteau, which is 72-6 in the past three seasons, hasn’t lost since.

“All that hard work paying off is amazing,” Durocher said.

Pannabecker, an inside-outside threat at the forward spot, averaged 21.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists in his final season, and a college decision between Rocky Mountain College and Carroll College is on the horizon.

The support from the Choteau community has been tremendous, Pannabecker said.

“Playing in Choteau, the fans, the community, everyone’s behind you,” he said. “You’re playing through the whole town, and there’s really a lot of pride that the town has in the team.”

Luedtke believes Pannabecker’s work ethic sets him apart from his competition, saying “I don’t think you’ll find a kid that will work harder than him.”

Pannabecker is a Super-State repeater.

“We obviously couldn’t have done what we’ve done without him,” Luedtke said. “He brings it every night, plays hard on both ends. He’s just a phenomenal, phenomenal player.”

Durocher, a 5-foot-11 shooting guard, is known for his pinpoint accuracy from distance.

He put up 18.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, and in a semifinal win at the State B tournament, the Montana Western recruit buried 9 of his 12 attempts from behind the arc.

“Derrek,” Luedtke said, “I think you’d be pretty hard-pressed to find a better shooter in the state of Montana.”

So why was this team, a team whose rotation featured just six bodies, able to be so successful, so dominant?

“We trust in each other,” Pannabecker said. “It all starts on the defensive end, and that’s what coach Luedtke preached all year, all throughout our careers, is it all starts on the defensive end and that’s where championships are won.”

One of the key characteristics, Luedtke said, that Pannabecker, Durocher and Achenbach all shared was their ability to sacrifice individual accolades for the betterment of the team.

“I could go on about these kids for days,” Luedtke said. “Not only talented, hardworking kids but outstanding human beings. Just happy to be a part of their lives and basketball careers.”

The 5-foot-9 Achenbach, a smooth southpaw, assumed the point guard duties.

“Definitely the team chemistry played a huge role,” Achenbach said. “Also, all the hard work and hours and hours in the gym. We did anything we could to be one step ahead of the opponent.”

Joining Durocher at Montana Western in the fall, Achenbach scored 13.7 markers and handed out 7 assists per contest, running and directing a dynamic offense, with its full arsenal to drive and shoot, that stretched opposing defenses more effectively than any team in the state.

Luedtke said Achenbach’s aptitude to not turn the ball over, as well as his shooting prowess, puts him right up there with the top point guards in the Treasure State.

“He just made everybody better out there,” he said.

Achenbach, who started all four years and missed just one game his entire career and that was due to injury, said he took a similar approach on the court this season as he did during his rookie campaign, when he focused more on facilitating than scoring.

“It was really nice because you have everyone who can score and make plays,” Achenbach said. “If someone was having an off night, you knew there’d be other guys that would step up and make plays.”

Luedtke said Pannabecker, Durocher and Achenbach have meant everything to the Choteau program.

“I feel like I’ve been lucky to coach them,” he said.

Howard is the 2016 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year.

The 6-foot-5 forward’s 25 points per game were a Class AA best, and his 10.4 rebounds a game were as well. The senior-to-be led the Great Falls High Bison in scoring in 22 of his team’s 23 outings.

Howard, whose ability to finish through contact and over taller defenders in the paint is unmatched, tallied a season-high 37 points in a game against Billings Skyview in February.

“I thought his outside game needed to improve, and he certainly did that this year,” C.M. Russell High head coach John Cislo said. “I think he evolved as a player, and I bet you he becomes a better ball handler between now and next year, also.”

Howard’s received interest from several schools in the Big Sky Conference.

Weidenaar, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who’s committed to Central Arkansas, averaged 16.9 points and 6 rebounds for a Bozeman Hawks squad that finished runner-up to Billings Skyview at the state tournament in Bozeman.

A capable shooter from the outside, Weidenaar became more of a leader in his senior season and has drawn praise from head coach Wes Almquist for doing so. His 49 3-pointers were second in the league.

Evans, at 6-foot-2, blossomed in the state tournament, throwing down multiple monstrous jams to the delight of a boisterous gym at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, helping the Skyview Falcons to back-to-back state titles.

A player with as much upside as anyone in the state, the senior-to-be put up 14.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists and excelled at getting to the basket.

Evans, who still needs to develop a more reliable perimeter shot, will likely receive strong interest from the Big Sky before his high school career is over.

Warp finds himself on the Super-State squad for the third consecutive year.

A Carroll College commit, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard averaged 27 points per game to go along with 7.5 rebounds for the Havre Blue Ponies.

His head coach, Curt Leeds, said Warp “played at a whole new level” to end his career.

“He was already a great player going into his senior season and he really led us, especially on offense, in the first couple months,” Leeds said, “and then he exploded in the second half of the season.”

Hadley, a 6-foot-2 senior who helped the Billings Central Rams to the State A finals appearance, will play football at Montana State University for head coach Jeff Choate.

Hadley, known for his athleticism and his high-flying dunks, registered over 15 markers a game during the regular season and averaged 24 a game during three contests in Missoula at the Class A state tournament.

Leeds, who went up against Billings Central in a state semifinal game, called Hadley a “great, great athlete.”

“He can shoot the ball from the outside,” Leeds said. “He can get to the basket off the drive. He can do it all.”

LeTexier is a 6-foot-3 post player from Jefferson High.

A University of Montana football commit, he averaged a double-double, carrying the Panthers to a competitive showing at the state tournament in Butte.

He averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds in his senior season.

Jefferson head coach Clint Layng called him “relentless.”

“I’ve been a head basketball coach for 12 years,” Layng said, “and he’s the best player I’ve ever had. He just does so many things.”

The Boy may be the best point guard in the state.

“In some ways, Brandon’s got the leadership in his DNA,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. “It’s not a thing that you’re coaching, it’s not a thing that you are teaching. It’s something that he brings from inside of him. You can’t teach that. You can’t coach that. It’s just something that the kid has.”

The 5-foot-9 senior guard averaged 16 points and 4.4 assists per game in his last go-round with the Bears, who won their second State C title in three years earlier this month at Four Seasons Arena.

As efficient as one can be from the field, The Boy, who has garnered interest from several Frontier schools, was named the Most Valuable Player of the State C tournament.

“He’s tough to guard,” MacDonald said. “He’s great in transition, whether it’s finishing or dishing. And he executes our offense so well. He recognizes things on the court, whether it’s a mismatch or a play that he thinks will work.

“As the season went on, he called out the offense most of the time. If I saw something, I’d call it. But most of the time, it was Brandon calling out plays, things that he wanted to happen out on the court. And most of the time we scored off of that. He’s just got a high basketball IQ.”