Three Lakes looks to compete nightly with a mixed roster

The Three Lakes boys basketball team will have a mix of experience heading into the 2025-26 season, where second-year Head Coach George Lurvey hopes to build a strong team bond as it looks to compete on a nightly basis throughout the season.

Although Three Lakes finished 11-15 overall last season, the team finished in third place in the Northern Lakes Conference with a 6-4 record.

The team lost a nail-biter to No. 2-seeded Pacelli in the regional semifinal on the road as the No. 7 seed.

Lurvey is in his second season as the head of the boys team, but went into that venture last year with a background of coaching girls basketball. He is more comfortable with the program as the Jays head into the new season and look to be one of the top teams in D5.

“My coaching background is in coaching girls basketball. Last year was my first year at the varsity level coaching boys basketball, and although it is different, it is still basketball, so I was able to adjust along the way and adapt to a different style of play,” Lurvey stated. “This year, I am starting the year more comfortable with the program and players and extremely excited to see what we can accomplish.”

Three Lakes returns five returning letterwinners to the squad, with sophomore Easton Lurvey, seniors Levi Lurvey and Grayson Polcaster and juniors Owen Liebscher and Zach Weavers, who will lead the team.

Lurvey (Easton) is the team’s returning leading scorer after averaging nearly 17 points per game as a freshman. He shot 42% from the field and 36% from deep on 186 attempts.

Liebscher is the next highest returning scorer at roughly six points per contest.
“Joining them at this time will be senior Sawyer Szews, junior Nolan Waltz and sophomores Sam Koshuta, Masen Schoeneck and Sean Wallschlaeger,” stated Lurvey. “These underclassmen have played together for many years and are a very talented group; it will just be a matter of time to get them ready for varsity-level play in a short period.”

It was an even split in the NLC last season, with Laona-Wabeno, Crandon and Three Lakes as the teams above a .500 record. The Cardinals and Rebels both finished the conference season 9-1. Florence and Goodman-Pembine both finished 3-7 in the NLC, while Elcho finished 0-10.

Lurvey expects Laona-Wabeno to be the favorites due to their athleticism, but the Jays and Crandon have a good chance to sit towards the top of the conference.

“I think the same three teams will be towards the top again this year, with L-W the favorite as they are one of the most athletic teams I’ve seen in Division 5 in many years,” he explained. “We are very excited about the group that we have, and we have full intentions to compete in every game, especially as the season moves on and we build more chemistry.”

Looking back at last season, Lurvey said the team peaked at the right time and was playing its best basketball when the playoffs hit. He wants this season to be much of the same, with the early season being a time to get the new players up and running at the varsity level.

“My ultimate goal is always to peak at the right time, which is during playoffs, and that task is a lot easier said than done. I think we accomplished that last year when we took a top-rated Pacelli team to the buzzer at their place,” explained Lurvey. “This year, the goal is the same: be patient with play in the beginning of the year, build team chemistry, mechanics and fundamentals along the way and be one of the top teams in our D5 sectional come tournament time.”

The Bluejays opened the regular season this past Tuesday with the Battle for the Paddle game at Northland Pines High School. The result of that game was not available before the deadline of this publication. Results can be found on the Vilas County News-Review website. Three Lakes’ next game will be after the Thanksgiving break and will travel to Goodman-Pembine Friday, Dec. 5, for a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.